At just 20 years old, Kerri-Anne Chisholm is already making her mark on the art scene in Cayman – and that’s without even being here most of the time. Last August, she exhibited some of her work at the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands, alongside the likes of Nasaria Suckoo-Chollette and Wray Banker.
Kerri-Anne is studying for her bachelor’s in Fine Art in the United Kingdom and is in the process of organising a group exhibition in England.
The daughter of artistically-inclined parents (her mother is a fashion designer and her father a metalworker and wood carver) she was always surrounded by art, although she says it wasn’t until her final year in high school when she considered pursuing art as a career.
Her portfolio consists of charcoal drawings and both black and white and colour photography.
“Drawing with charcoal was a medium I used to portray a moment in time through portraiture, with a focus on emotions. This has developed into the use of photography to examine human communication and interaction,” she says. “I find that in analysing a subject matter or scene in black and white, I am able to understand and unravel the relationships between the subjects more precisely. Black and white photographs also possess an ethereal and timeless quality which hold my fascination. I have recently started developing colour photographs using a variety of camera formats and, despite praise for this work, I am constantly drawn to the processes of the darkroom and the image resulting from a black and white analog camera.”
Kerri-Anne’s subject matter is as varied as the media she works in, incorporating landscapes, wildlife, architecture and people. She believes this is a result of her own artistic training, which necessitated an examination of the environment around her and her own reaction to it. It’s a study, she says, that does not end but develops, through different formats.
While drawing allows her to lose herself in thought, she says, she enjoys photography “because I have the control to carefully select and capture the mood of a specific moment in time for it to be experienced by others in another.”
Following her bachelor’s degree, Kerri-Anne plans to pursue a master’s specialising in Curating.
“Subsequently,” she says, “I plan to return to Cayman to work alongside artists and organisations to be a part of the development of the arts scene that is currently taking place. My future plans are to establish and institution which will serve as a career and university support centre for students graduating from high school who are interesting in the arts. This will provide information on and prospects available in which they are interested.”
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