A ma­jor ex­hi­bi­tion cel­e­brat­ing the pro­lif­ic vi­su­al artistry of mu­si­cian and cul­tur­al icon Michael Booth­man will open at Arn­im’s Art Gal­le­ria on Oc­to­ber 3 from 6 pm to 9 pm.

Al­though in­ter­na­tion­al­ly ac­claimed for his mu­si­cal con­tri­bu­tions, Booth­man is al­so a mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary cre­ative whose pow­er­ful vi­su­al ex­pres­sion has re­mained a less­er-known facet of his tal­ent. Michael Booth­man: Ret­ro­spec­tive of­fers a re­dis­cov­ery of a vi­su­al ca­reer that spans more than five decades.

His works have ap­peared in ex­hi­bi­tions across T&T, Bar­ba­dos, St Thomas, Grena­da and New York since the late 1960s, yet un­til now have been known main­ly with­in se­lect arts cir­cles.

Cu­ra­tor Karl Doyle de­scribes the show as “a vi­tal and long-over­due ex­plo­ration of a ca­reer that de­fies sin­gu­lar cat­e­gori­sa­tion and the artis­tic lega­cy Booth­man has built over decades.”

The ex­hi­bi­tion traces Booth­man’s per­son­al jour­ney through chang­ing styles, themes, moods and me­dia. Doyle notes it al­so stands as “a poignant tes­ta­ment to the artis­tic re­silience of a Caribbean cre­ative who has per­se­vered de­spite the per­son­al costs that a cre­ative life de­mands.” Col­lec­tors and en­thu­si­asts are in­vit­ed to step in­to a shared cul­tur­al is­to­ry and ex­pe­ri­ence Booth­man’s ex­ten­sive body of work first­hand.

“I’m a cre­ative. The things I’m in­spired by are my sur­round­ings and en­vi­ron­ment,” Booth­man ex­plains. “I like to re­flect on the past… to rep­re­sent nos­tal­gia.”

His pieces range from por­traits of mu­si­cal lu­mi­nar­ies to vi­brant ab­stract works and still lifes, ex­e­cut­ed in acrylics, pas­tels, pen­cil and wood carv­ings. Bril­liant Caribbean colours ra­di­ate from his art, re­flect­ing his dual pas­sions and deep con­nec­tion to place.

Ho­n­oured with T&T’s Hum­ming­bird Medal (Gold) for cul­ture and the arts, Booth­man has been a lead­ing fig­ure in mu­sic for more than 60 years. A pi­o­neer of the Kyso­fu­sion genre and a key force in the evo­lu­tion of So­ca, his work as com­pos­er, arranger and per­former in­cludes the land­mark al­bum Heav­en and ap­pear­ances at ma­jor in­ter­na­tion­al fes­ti­vals such as Mon­treux and Glas­ton­bury.

Ex­hi­bi­tion De­tails

What: Michael Booth­man: Ret­ro­spec­tive

Where: Arn­im’s Art Gal­le­ria, Tra­garete Road, Port of Spain, Trinidad

Open­ing Night: Fri­day Oc­to­ber 3, 2025, 6 pm–9 pm

Show Runs: 3–17 Oc­to­ber 2025

Gallery Hours:

Mon­day–Fri­day: 9 am–6 pm

Sat­ur­day: 9 am–4 pm