Mr Winslow Craig is a Guyanese sculptor whose natural talent manifested at an early age, and blossomed with formal training at the ER Burrowes School of Art in Georgetown. He works in many media, like metal, wood, and bronze, and is known for his invention of a new medium for sculpture: “sawdoue” an amalgam of sawdust and glue which is placed on steel.
Today, Mr Craig is a lecturer in art at the University of Guyana and his work can be found in private collections through the region, in Guyanese institutions and international collections from New Zealand (Retribution II), China (The Unseen Helper) and Belize (Cutting Edge and The Watcher). He was also commissioned by Cable and Wireless to create a trophy for its 2000 cricket series, which was titled Willow and Leather.
Born in the Kappawarri Creek of the Essequibo River in 1967, Mr Craig began sculpting from an early age. Of part indigenous heritage, he was influenced by his father, who was a woodsman and woodworker, to begin whittling. He sold his first piece at age seven for the sum of $20. Nonetheless, his plans for the future focused on his becoming a gold-miner until a teacher encouraged him to apply to the ER Burrowes School of Art in Georgetown. He was accepted and his graduation work, Discovery, was acquired by the Guyanese polymath, Denis Williams, for the Guyana national collection.
Thereafter, Mr Craig was awarded a 1997 Commonwealth Foundation Fellowship in Arts & Craft which took him to the Christchurch Polytechnic School of Art and Design, New Zealand, where he created Retribution II. After this fellowship, he was selected to attend the International Sculpture Symposium in China (2001), where he was the only artist representing the English-speaking Caribbean.
Mr Craig’s work explores the themes of spirituality, justice, gender issues, nature and the environment His work, Fighting for Global Peace, has been featured in a documentary aired on CNN World Report in the aftermath of the Gulf War. Apart from many exhibitions in Guyana, his work has been shown in Haiti, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, the US, Venezuela, and China. He is regarded as one of the leading sculptors in Guyana, according to former minister of culture, Dr Frank Anthony. Ian McDonald described his work as being of “world class genius”.
He has been commissioned by various regional institutions, like the Bank of Guyana, and the Commonwealth Youth Programme. One of his pieces was also commissioned by the Government of Guyana and presented to the Walter Reed Memorial Hospital in the US, where Guyanese president Cheddi Jagan was treated.
Mr Craig won the Guyana Visual Arts Competition (Sculpture) 2014, and was awarded a Guyana National Award, The Medal of Service (2002). He continues to work and teach in Guyana.
