Big Art Auction has a flying start

By Lindsey Turnbull

Artworks from the National Gallery’s Big Art Auction 9 are currently on display, tempting would-be buyers into acquiring art by some of Cayman’s most notable artists. One such contributing artist is David Bridgeman, who has supported the Big Art Auction mostly since its inception. David is a highly regarded artist whose accolades include receiving the Artistic Achievement Award for Art and Art Education as well as the Gold Star Award medal for Creativity in the Arts by the Cayman National Cultural Foundation. He has also been awarded the Certificate of Excellence by the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands.

His artwork this year is Flying Machine, created in 2017, an evocative painting that was born from his sculpture of an imaginary flying machine. Created in Grand Cayman, this mixed-media work uses collage, charcoal, oil bars,and gouache, to navigate distance, memory, and identity, David explained.

“The piece originates from my own sculpture of an imaginary flying machine, built from balsa wood and tissue paper, which served as a live model for the drawing,” he said. “This machine acts as a vessel, allowing me to hover over childhood landscapes and reflect on my sense of self after living away from England for many years. Through raw, tactile layering, the work explores how geographic separation reshapes our relationship to the places that formed us.”

The Big Art Auction runs every two years around this time of year, raising funds for the development of the National Gallery Permanent Collection and supporting education programming needs during the event year. The National Collection is an important body of artwork that helps the National Gallery preserve, promote and foster Caymanian visual culture, which is held in posterity for the Caymanian people.

Artists who contribute to the Big Art Auction receive 50% of the proceeds raised from the sale of their artwork. David’s contributions over the years have focussed mainly on abstracted landscapes, each one telling a different story.

Following a month-long exhibition, the National Gallery holds an auction evening which includes a welcome reception followed by a lively auction. Private tours of the works to be auctioned are available throughout the exhibition run.

David’s work uses sculpture, printmaking, painting, and 3D modeling to construct physical relics from imaginary histories.

“Working by building, casting, and physically modifying tools and everyday items, I strip away an object’s original utility to transform it into a prop or evidence of an unwritten narrative,” he explained. “The focus of my studio practice is the tactile manipulation of materials—creating objects that feel worn, deliberate, and slightly askew to blur the line between documented reality and constructed myth.”

Flying Machine formed the focal point of all other work that David created for an exhibition in Windmill Street, London.

David is a member of Edinburgh Printmakers and recently created a screen print which will be exhibited at the Edinburgh Printmakers members’ show which opens in Edinburgh on 12th November. He is presently making models of imaginary flying machines using balsa wood on which he has screenprinted.

The Big Art Auction exhibition runs until 18 November at the National Gallery and includes work by the following artists:

Jo Austin, Babbity Barwick, John Bird, Cameron Bridgeman, David Bridgeman, John Broad, Nasaria Suckoo Chollette, Randy Chollette, Davin Ebanks, Kathryn Elphinstone, Samuel Etoh, Dale Evers, Janine Every, Lana Gilyun, Teresa Grimes, Guy Harvey, Bendel Hydes, John Reno Jackson, Jason Kennedy, Charles Long, Iain MacRae, Linda McCann, Claire Pettinati, Yonier Powery, Kay Smith, Gordon Solomon, and Larisa Sved.

 To schedule a tour email development@nationalgallery.org.ky .