Archipelago: The Fourth Cayman Islands Biennial Opens October

The National Gallery of Cayman Islands is taking the 4th edition of the Cayman Islands Biennial to new horizons by inviting U.S.- based curators for their themed exhibition, Archipelago. This multi-sited exhibition represents the best submissions from Caymanian artists across all three islands and the Diaspora to showcase the breadth of diversity and creativity in this Caribbean country.

The Biennial runs October 2, 2025-February 18, 2026, at the National Gallery and across several satellite spaces across Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brac. These sites include the Cayman Islands National Museum and the Little Cayman Museum, with others to be announced along with the list of selected artists on September 1, 2025 (second press release to follow). Admission is free to the public, as is the suite of programming that will animate the venues throughout the exhibition run.

Inspired by the scattered formation and relative isolation of islands, the theme Archipelago foregrounds the interplay of the individual and the collective, just as an archipelago is simultaneously a single conglomerate and a chain of several distinct land masses. The exhibition will be organised according to multiple subthemes for this interplay of individuals within/against a collective. These include the cultural shift of heritage, memory, and belonging; social dynamics shaped by communication, politics, and technology; and ecological legacies as they pertain to preservation, sustainability, and environmental concerns.

This curated exhibition consists of 80 works in all media, juried from 165+ submissions by 100+ artists—a testament to the cultural growth since the first biennial in 2019, with 51 works by 41 artists. At the closing ceremony, artists will be selected for the Bendel Hydes and the Emerging Artist awards, with monetary and exhibition development for awardees.

While the first editions were juried by regional experts and curated by the National Gallery curatorial team, this edition invited Joseph L. Underwood and Davin Ebanks to co-curate the fourth edition, the

latter who is a former Bendel Hydes Awardee (2nd Cayman Islands Biennial). In selecting this curatorial team, National Gallery Director Natalie Urquhart shares, “As frequent collaborators in their faculty roles at Kent State University (Ohio, USA), professors Underwood and Ebanks bring a unique blend of curatorial, studio, and art criticism experience to this project. As co-curators, they are working with our Caymanian artists—locally and abroad—as well as our gallery staff and their curatorial assistants to develop something really dynamic. It will continue to strength wider mission of the Biennial project, which seeks to challenge our artists to situate their works in larger global conversations, and to address the critical issues of our time in their practice.” Underwood and Ebanks will also serve as authors and editors of the catalogue published in conjunction with the biennial, available early 2026.

This project is supported by Butterfield Bank (Cayman) Limited and the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Culture and Heritage.