Davin Ebanks
Better Together Resident
Davin Ebanks is a Caymanian-American sculptor who primarily uses glass to explore his personal and cultural history and examine the relationship between identity and the environment. Included in his wide-ranging international exhibition record Davin has shown at SOFA Chicago and CONTEXT Art Miami during Art Basel week. He is a recipient of the Silver Heritage Star from the Cayman National Cultural Foundation for his contributions to creativity in the Arts. His glass sculptures are in the collection of His Royal Highness, King Charles, The Kerry & C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art, the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands, at the Cafesjian Art Trust Museum. Davin’s work was published in “A-Z of Caribbean Art” and “Crafted Kinship: Inside the Creative Practices of Contemporary Black Caribbean Makers”. He has done residencies at Tacoma Museum of Glass, Chrysler Museum of Glass, and Pittsburg Glass Center. He recently co-juried New Glass Review 43 and is currently Associate Professor (Head) of Glass at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, USA.
"I see my sculptures as metaphors for the subjective yet interconnected nature of identity and personal narrative. I use everyday elements from the island culture where I was raised—ripe bananas, woven baskets, ocean water, etc.—and by translating these subjects into glass they are elevated from the mundane to the aesthetic. Bananas and cotton are fraught with cultural and political significance. The banana also has a long history as an artistic subject. In my homeland of Cayman, the local bananas are poor peoples’ food, grown in many backyards. On the other hand, the cultivated, store-bought banana is symbol of colonialism and monoculture. Baskets of glass fruit adorned the sitting rooms of many working-class families during my childhood. This trope is an act of preservation that negates usefulness, or perhaps reframes what usefulness means. This translation mirrors how the objects in this show have been transformed, forcing them to oscillate between the familiar and the foreign."
