Islands in the City
26 September, 2025 – 9th November,2025
GALLERY OCA
Royal Over-Seas League
Mayfair
London
A major exhibition of contemporary Caribbean art opens at London’s Royal Over-Seas League, bringing together over 20 artists across generations and mediums.
The Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL) will open Islands in the City, a group exhibition of contemporary Caribbean art, on 25 September. Co-curated by Sherece Rainford of Gallery OCA and Louis Chapple of ROSL, the show will run through 9 November 2025.
The exhibition will bring together more than 20 artists working across painting, sculpture, collage, photography and mixed media. Among those participating are Anthony Daley, Charmaine Watkiss, Simon Frederick and Yvadney Davis, alongside emerging figures including Brianna Lois Parker and Jordan Zayas Kelly.
The works address themes of diaspora, memory, migration and cultural identity. Organisers describe the exhibition as both a celebration of Caribbean imagination and a reflection on the challenges faced by artists seeking visibility in international art centres.
Featuring artists
Annis Harrison
Anthony Daley
Brianna Lois Parker
Carla Amour
Charmaine Watkiss
Eden Mullen
Emily Alice Mitchell
EVEWRIGHT
Ikesha Avo
Jordan Zayas Kelly
Katasha Rose
Leeroy Zozo
Lynn Parotti
Merissa Hylton
Natalie Charles
Paula Ogun Hector
Roisin Jones
Simon Frederick
Sonia Elizabeth Barrett
Venetta Nicole
Yvadney Davis
Yvette Miller
Caribbean art is one of the most dynamic and generative forces in contemporary culture,” says Sherece Rainford, Art Consultant, Founder of Gallery OCA, and a recognised expert in Caribbean art. “This exhibition is not only a celebration of individual brilliance but also a collective statement about the accelerating momentum of Caribbean creativity on the world stage. The Caribbean has always been at the centre of cultural production, and today we are witnessing an exciting surge of recognition and opportunity in the art world. Islands in the City captures that energy, bringing a constellation of island futures into the very heart of London.”
The artists draw on a range of island heritages — from the Bahamas, Dominica and Grenada to Jamaica, Montserrat, Puerto Rico and the wider Caribbean diaspora. Their practices, the curators note, are shaped by both the rootedness of island life and the experience of transatlantic movement and exchange.
The show’s full title, Islands in the City: A Constellation of Island Futures in the Centre of Empire, gestures to its location in Mayfair. Once a symbol of imperial power, the district is here reimagined as a space for diasporic creativity.
Islands in the City opens on the 26th of September, 2025 until the 9th of November,2025 at GALLERY OCA
©2025 GALLERY OCA
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