är”kIv exhibition set to open at the National Gallery
Press Release
‘är”kIv, an exhibition of paintings by former winter Cayman resident Allison Lasley (1948 – 2004), is the next show to open at the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands thanks to the sponsorship of Mike Viner and Periwinkle Restaurant. Joint sponsor Mike Viner noted one of the reasons he was moved to sponsor this exhibition: “I empathise with Allison Lasley in that we are both visitors to the Cayman Islands who have been warmly welcomed and inspired by our experience of Cayman and its inhabitants.”
Curator Emérentienne Paschalides wished the exhibition not only to present the paintings of this established artist but also to explore a key theme running through her work: the idea of artwork as an archive of all the defining experiences that constitute our identities and our lives. This archive takes the form of a series of small square watercolours of standard size, almost like cards in a rolodex, which may incorporate cuttings, clippings and other materials embedded in layers of paint, plaster and wax. In 1997, Allison Lasley spent time as a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome, where she produced her Rome Journals; later, over a five year period, she spent time in the Cayman Islands where she created her Cayman Series, comprising several hundred pieces which capture the intense light and sun-bleached hues of the Caribbean and its vivid sounds and smells: an aquamarine square of the ocean, a Carib bottle top, the bill from a restaurant, the orange of a Poinciana tree. When displayed, Lasley’ string of impressions and records appears as a lively mosaic of images, each of them contrasting or echoing the others.
“A part of Allison’s artistic legacy touches on the Cayman Islands” explains Emérentienne Paschalides, “I hope that this exhibition, in which her Cayman Series features, will succeed in conveying the sensitive lyrical elegance, playfulness and quiet intensity which she achieves in her paintings.”
Allison’s husband, Stuart Goode, who resides in New York but spends winters in Cayman, is proud of the upcoming exhibition: “I am sure that Allison would have been very happy to have her work exhibited in Cayman, which was a source of inspiration for her.”
A significant number of paintings from her oeuvre will be exhibited at the National Gallery from 4th May to 25th August 2006 and the exhibition is sponsored by Mike Viner and Periwinkle Restaurant.