About the exhbition
This exhibition is a celebration of the Caribbean landscape and the people that inhabit it – the remarkable flora and the fauna, unique colours and light, diverse forms of visual expression and tapestry of cultures. The exhibition presents a selection of remarkable artworks by three female contemporary artists, Sandra Scott, Nadia Koo and Selena Scott. They have made their home in Cambridge while continuing to be informed and inspired by their Caribbean heritage. Their work is presented through the lens of their lived experiences, life-long travels and multi-cultural backgrounds as well as personal histories and memories.
This history and culture of the Caribbean are inextricably linked to landscape. Both in terms of ‘real’ and ‘imagined’ geographies, scholars of the Caribbean refer not only to the remarkable physical and geographic qualities of this varied region but also the socio-economic, political and historical trajectories which contribute to its complex, diverse, often disputed but visibly distinct social and cultural landscape – at the heart of which is the relationship between people and nature.
This exhibition presents a range of media and artforms ranging from film, textile-arts, doll-making as well as painting and printmaking, reflecting the rich tapestry of artistic expression found across the region and in the contemporary arts. The three contemporary artists in this exhibition offer a remarkable insight into the Caribbean, its influence on global imaginations and impact on cultures around the world. Reflecting their own reality they explore and blend the knowledge of Caribbean and of Cambridge. Like much great art, they exlore, inspire and reveal. You are invited to see what you will, but the more you look the more you see. They demonstrate that, in a world obsessed with classifications, it is possible to break down boundaries, preconceptions and prejudices, starting with western notions of genre and media but more fundamentally, affecting our expectations, appreciation and understanding of art.
This exhibition is curated by Dr. Anna M Dempster, Fellow, Wolfson College.
Find out more here: Art Exhibition: ‘Life Within Landscapes’.
About the artists
Born in Barbados, Sandra Scott is a textile artist, quilter, painter and printmaker. Having moved to Cambridge over thirty years ago, she has continued to develop her art practice while raising a family. She studied Art Education at The Jamaica School of Art and completed her MA in printmaking at the Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University.
Born and raised in Cambridge, Nadia Koo is influenced by childhood stays in Dominica, a tropical island in the Eastern Caribbean Sea, with its lush landscapes, abundant fruits, giant blooms and iridescent hummingbirds. Painting between her garden studio in Cambridge and her caravan by the Suffolk sea, Koo blends place, memories and experiences to create a remarkable world filled with colour, light and energy, bursting from each canvas.
Selena Scott is a Cambridge based artist who aims to redefine the portrayal of Black people through portraiture and oil painting, traditionally used to perpetuate western ideals. Selena also works with film, textiles and animation to navigate the many facets of Black identity through the lens of trauma, racism and colonialism. Her Caribbean heritage drives her creative process.
Accessibility
This exhibition is on display in the Combination Room on the first floor of our main building. It has step-free access with a lift and there is an accessible toilet located on the first floor of the building.
Facilities
- Assistance dogs welcome
- Blue badge parking
- Car Parking
- Disabled Accessibility
- Facilities for Disabled Guests
- On site parking
- wheelchair access
