It's a Settlement Day tradition that the Garinagu's most globally celebrated painter Pen Cayetano stages an exhibit of his finest works. This one at the Museum of Belize - spans his entire career and the major themes in his work.
The museum today re- opened on its anniversary for this exhibit - and here's more on the show:
Ilona Smiling, Curator, Museum of Belize
"Several themes, the first was the early style from Pen Cayetano when he started painting, then we dealt into the style development where you started to see his own artistry starting to take hold. Then, we have a section on spirituality that he paints a lot in his work. Then, we have an entire section dedicated to casava making because again that's one of the things he highlights a lot in his work. Then, historical documentation in which he brings to life a lot of the historical relevance in his culture. You know, we have sceneries that depict TV Ramos, We have a painting called "the glorification of Elijio Benny". All of these things they're so amazing, so rich and he captures all of it within his artwork. The exhibition has been successful so far and it's one of the few times we were actually able to convert the entire first floor into nothing but art. We have over 75 pieces of painting here from Pen Cayetano. So, that in itself is amazing. I think it's incredibly important that we have our artist connect with our community especially students who are in school. Especially the ones who are trying to figure out whether or not they want to pursue a career in art. Mr. Cayetano is one of the most successful Belizean artists that we have out there. He has exhibited worldwide, sold to different galleries and I think it's just incredibly important that we have that visibility between our artist and our students. I encourage everybody to come out and see this exhibition. We have it up for another couple months and this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. We've had this exhibit up since February, I think we're going to keep it up until next year March, but please come out, view the exhibition, see what it is that Pen is bringing out into the world."
The show is opened to the public.
