About the artwork:
Sheena Rose’s relaxed figures challenge centuries of demands for Black labor and instead, finds empowerment through leisure. Rooted in her Caribbean heritage, her figures establish a powerful self-image, imbued with eclectic iconography that extends beyond the borders of her hometown of Bridgetown. Scenes of play–dancing, feasting, sporting–become moments in which Black identity is formed and celebrated. The figures of varied complexions populating Rose’s compositions exude confidence and control, inviting the viewer to identify with their exertion and revelry, creating stories that are at once deeply personal and rebellious. Emanating vivid hues and bold patterns in her distinct color-blocked style, Rose captures exuberant expressions of belonging across athletic platforms and social strata that not only explore recreation and heroic athleticism, but also emphasize camaraderie and connectedness. Like traditional conversation pieces, Rose’s depictions of dinner parties, competitions, and other fêtes exhibit an intimacy between subjects that can be interrogated, contemplated, or perhaps even joined by the viewer. Looking toward liberation, her polychromatic paintings offer portals to moments of joy, rest, and reprieve that are necessary to build a more inclusive world.
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:
No Doubt, No Fear represents the decisive moment of a swimming race, as competitors are caught mid dive into the pool. Rose claims space for Black female athletes who have been historically marginalized in sports like swimming, centering their strength, determination, and camaraderie.More
- Unframed
- Signed
3:00 PM, May 14, 2026.
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