Exhibition
This National Gallery exhibition featured a 360-degree panorama of Cayman entitled Things That Exist Only in My Fading Memory.
The instantly recognisable “Dready” work by Shane Aquârt spanned across 105 feet with floor-to-ceiling panels depicting Cayman buildings, both old and new.
“I was here in Cayman as a boy in the very early 70s”, says the artist, “my father lived here, and I returned to live in the early 90s, so the art is made up of Cayman memories from those days. For instance, in the middle […] is the National Museum, but as it was when it was the Courthouse because I have a memory of my step-grandfather, the then chief justice, standing at the balcony in his court gown and wig”. The artwork also featured “memories from more recent times, like the Little Cayman Flight Island Airplane and things that exist today.”
About the Artist
Shane “Dready” Aquârt
b. 1963
Shane Aquârt, who signs his art “Dready”, has a whimsical graphic style influenced by his rich mixture of cultural experiences: a Caribbean childhood, education at an English boarding school, a Canadian high school, and a US college. Aquârt has illustrated several publications, and his work has been extensively used in merchandising, commercial graphics, and interiors. His solo exhibition Cayman Panorama: Things That Exist Only in My Fading Memory was featured at the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands in 2013, and recently installed at the Owen Roberts International Airport as part of the NGCI’s Art at the Airport project (2019). His work has featured in numerous NGCI exhibitions, including Metamorphoses (2014), tIDal Shift: Explorations of Identity in Contemporary Caymanian Art (2015), Upon the Seas (2017), Cross Currents – 1st Cayman Islands Biennial (2019), Reimagined Futures – 2nd Cayman Islands Biennial (2021), Thatch Roofs & Ironwood Posts (2024), and The Ties That Bind (2024).
