About

Nickola McCoy is a 32 year old working artist from the Cayman Islands. Born on 25 October 1974 on Grand Cayman, she is the eldest daughter of eight children born to a Jamaican mother and a Caymanian father. Her art is entirely self taught, a true Cayman artist, her feeling for Caribbean art and culture is self evident.

She has lived most of her life on Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands and her travels have taken her to Russia, The United States, Cuba and the United Kingdom. Her life has seen many varied areas of work including time as a police officer, a dive instructor, a postal worker, an insurance administrator and a teacher.

Her art is entirely self taught and she has exhibited in galleries around the world. Her paintings can be found in the Cayman Islands National Gallery collection, and The Cayman Islands National Museum but a great deal of her more recent works are now housed in private collections predominantly in the United States, the Cayman Islands and the United Kingdom.

Nickola was the winner of the first McCoy Prize for excellence in art and she has been featured heavily in the national press on her island home. She continues to produce works of very high quality with a diversity of styles and subject matter, her preferred medium being acrylics, either on paper or canvas.

Expositions/Prizes

1999 – 2002 Cayman Visual Arts Society Harquail Theatre

2001 – Native Sons National Museum Of The Cayman Islands

2002/2005 – Art At Governors – Governor’s Residence Seven Mile Beach Grand Cayman

2002 – 2004 McCoy Prize Art Competition Cayman National Gallery/Cayman National Museum

2003 – Portrait Of An Artist Cayman National Gallery

2003 – Merging Cultures National Gallery Of The Cayman Islands

2004 – Island To London The Cayman Embassy In London

2004 – Emergence – A Story Of The Hurricane – Cayman National Gallery

2005 – Native Sons Fahive – Cayman National Gallery

2002 – The McCoy Prize For Excellence In Caymanian Art

2003 – Cayman National Cultural Foundation Award For Artistic Achievement