On 02 June 2022, John Reno Jackson’s solo exhibition premiered in the DART Auditorium Community Gallery to a lively private reception. Titled John Reno Jackson: A Heron Amongst the Storm and featuring a selection of paintings and accompanying drawings outlining the artist’s ongoing journey of self-discovery, creative expression and experimentation, Jackson’s exhibition showcases his genuine passion for learning and making.
Through his bold use of colour and abstraction, Jackson seeks to explore subjective narratives of Caymanian contemporary culture and identity, having been greatly inspired by great abstract and expressionist artists such as Willem de Kooning, Max Pechstein and esteemed Caymanian artist, Bendel Hydes. “My paintings extend an invitation to participate in this conversation around what it means to be a Caymanian in our contemporary era,” states the artist. “I think it has become more important than ever to produce work that explores the theme of the body and its relationship to the self, and to the wider society in which we live”, Jackson remarks.
Paying homage to his predecessors and multiple sources of inspiration, the artist’s work also encourages viewers to contemplate the relationship between the abstraction and figuration they see – asking them to consider if the relative absence of discernible figuration indicates an obscuring of perception, or an enhancement of it, in part through its lack of expectations about the appearance and meaning of images. To encourage this engagement, an interactive study table with a selection of books that have inspired Jackson’s own work, as well as blank paper and pencils, are presented as part of the display, allowing visitors to participate in the creative process by sharing their ideas and responses to the exhibition.
Featuring a series of thirteen paintings and accompanying drawings, John Reno Jackson: A Heron Amongst the Storm will run until 05 August 2022 in the Dart Auditorium Community Gallery from 10am-5pm, Monday to Saturday. For more information about John Reno Jackson: A Heron Amongst the Storm and all related programming visit our What’s On page, or email education@nationalgallery.org.ky
About John Reno Jackson
John Reno Jackson is an emerging contemporary Caymanian painter. He attended foundation courses in painting and drawing at the London Art Academy in 2015 and received mentorship from TURPS correspondence Course from 2020 – 2022. Since then, he has continued his painterly explorations through a series of abstract works made in Grand Cayman.
Jackson has exhibited work at Paulo – PADA Studios in Barreiro, Portugal, where he attended an artist’s residency in 2020, and at Artisan Space in London, UK (2020). In 2022 he will be attending the Caribbean Linked VI Artist Residency in Aruba before enrolling at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, where he will be completing his BFA in Fine Art.
His work can be found in private collections across Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel, the Netherlands, and Portugal, and is represented in the permanent collection of NGCI, where it has featured in the exhibitions Island of Women: Life at Home During our Maritime Years (2020), Reimagined Futures – 2nd Cayman Islands Biennial (2021) and The People’s Collection – A 25-Year Cultural Legacy (2022).