Born in Yorkshire England, Edna Manley's mother was Jamaican, from the prominent Shearer family. She met her cousin Norman Manley who had come to England as a Rhodes scholar to study at Oxford. He was later conscripted and fought in WW1, while Edna... read more
Jamaican Artists
The late Honorable Alvin Tolman Marriott is considered a national Jamaican treasure. He was born in 1902 to a family of artists, his mother a playwright and musician and his father a craftsman who made and sold straw items. It was his mother who... read more
Born in Kingston, raised in Claremont, St. Ann, Ewan McAnuff received his early education at Claremont All Age School. He then attended Ocho Rios Secondary School where he met his first Art tutor, Frank Brown, who was to be a great inspiration to... read more
Born in rural St Thomas, McLaren went as far as the 6th grade in primary school, then left to take up an apprenticeship in coach building. At the turn of the century this would have been a viable profession but with the introduction of the motor car... read more
David Miller Junior worked closely with his father David Miller Senior. Along with with a middle man, they produced wood sculptures for tourists docked at Kingston Harbour and were often accused of exoticizing their own work for gain. The Millers... read more
Born in Kingston to a well-to-do family, Moody left Jamaica at aged 23, initially to pursue a career in dentistry. This was not necessarily his first choice, he was already widely read in Chinese and Indian metaphysics and showed an aptitude for the... read more
Cleveland Morgan’s maturation as a painter mirrors the same process of maturation in Jamaica’s cultural institutions, since a great deal of his artistic achievements are due to their foundation. Introduced to art through his local secondary school... read more