About the artwork:
This painting depicts a number of runners during a competition on a racing track. The artist used to run for her school in certain athletic competitions and remembers the feeling she would get at the corner of the track—knowing it was the time to speed up and win that race. About this work, Rose says: “I wanted to capture that moment of the athletes getting ready to soon reach the finish line. The suspense!”
Light and humorous, Sheena Rose’s work tackles concerns related to identity and affirmation. Many of the artist's compositions feature larger-than-life athletes, and her work mimics classic patterns and colors from the seventies that purposely take up space.
About the artist:
Sheena Rose is a visual artist who lives and works in Bridgetown, Barbados. Her multi-disciplinary practice includes painting, drawing, performance, new media, public art, and mixed media. Her heroic figures explore accessibility of personal power, referencing symbols of affluence and place. Her painting style is characterized by flat coloring, bold patterns from the seventies and eighties, and vivid, comic-book-like palettes and vignettes. Her proud figures take up literal and figurative space, donning clothes, hair and confidence that command attention. Situated in a myriad of contexts – the tropics, interiors, athletic platforms – they are symbolic celebrations of the artist’s imagination. Rose is curious about a generous world, where she can move freely and be present as her whole self in any space. She unlocks a certain freedom while querying real life strategies on how to get there. “We are more than just the Sea, Sand, and Sun, we are our ancestors, our roots, and our heritage.”
Sheena Rose (b. 1985, Bridgetown, Barbados) has exhibited in the United States at The Hole (New York, NY); Museum of African Diaspora (San Francisco, CA); Weatherspoon Art Museum (Greensboro, NC); De Buck Gallery, Connect Gallery, Eric Firestone Gallery, and Johansson Projects, and is in a traveling group exhibition originating at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2024-2026). Internationally she has exhibited at the Havana Biennial (Cuba); ICF, Royal Academy of Arts (London, England); Berlin Biennale (Berlin, Germany); and the University of the West Indies (Barbados). Her work has been featured in publications and media including The New York Times, Travel & Leisure Magazine, Vogue, Hospitality Design, White Wall, Wetransfer, Black Futures, Fox Television Empire Season 6, and on the cover of the novel “The Star Side of Bird Hill” written by Naomi Jackson. Public works include a two-story mural at the Inter-American Development Bank Headquarters (Washington DC) and a mural for the exhibition "The Other Side of Now" at the Perez Art Museum (Miami). Rose was also commissioned by the DSM Public Art Foundation to design seven bus shelters in the 6th Avenue Corridor (Iowa). She won the Greensboro School of Art Distinguished Alumni award, in 2014 received a distinguished Fulbright Scholarship and in 2026 was named a laureate of the Caribbean’s most prestigious award program, The Anthony N. Sabga Award for Caribbean Excellence. Rose holds an MFA in Studio Art from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and currently lives and works in her hometown of Bridgetown, Barbados.
Specs:
In this painting, the artist–who used to be a school athlete running in certain athletic competitions–recreates the feeling of suspense she remembers at the corner of the track—knowing it was the time to accelerate and win that race.More
- Unframed
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