Barbadian visual artist Sheena Rose recently received a 2026 Anthony N. Sabga Caribbean Award of Excellence for Laureate of the Arts & Letters. The other awardees were Niven R. Narain (Guyana / United States), Dean Nevers (Jamaica), Shamelle Rice (Barbados), and Tannecia Stephenson (Jamaica). [Also see our previous post Five Caribbean Leaders Honored with 2026 Anthony N. Sabga Excellence Awards.]
Sheena Rose, a Barbadian visual artist, received the award in Arts & Letters. Her work spans painting, performance, murals, and mixed media, and has been shown in solo exhibitions in London, New York, Taiwan, and across the Caribbean. A 2014 Fulbright scholar, Rose has received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and mentors emerging artists from the region.
Johansson Projects shares this bio:
Sheena Rose (b. 1985, Bridgetown, Barbados) has exhibited in the United States at The Hole (New York, NY); Museum of African Diaspora (San Francisco, CA); Weatherspoon Art Museum (Greensboro, NC); De Buck Gallery, Connect Gallery, Eric Firestone Gallery, and Johansson Projects, and is in a traveling group exhibition originating at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2024-2026). Her work will be featured at Felix Art Fair 2026 in LA by Johansson Projects. Internationally she has exhibited at the Havana Biennial (Cuba); ICF, Royal Academy of Arts (London, England); Berlin Biennale (Berlin, Germany); and the University of the West Indies (Barbados).
Her work has been featured in publications and media including The New York Times, Travel & Leisure Magazine, Vogue, Hospitality Design, White Wall, Wetransfer, Black Futures, Fox Television Empire Season 6, and on the cover of the novel “The Star Side of Bird Hill” written by Naomi Jackson.
Public works include a two-story mural at the Inter-American Development Bank Headquarters (Washington DC) and a mural for the exhibition “The Other Side of Now” at the Perez Art Museum (Miami). Rose was also commissioned by the DSM Public Art Foundation to design seven bus shelters in the 6th Avenue Corridor (Iowa). She won the Greensboro School of Art Distinguished Alumni award, in 2014 received a distinguished Fulbright Scholarship and in 2026 was named a laureate of the Caribbean’s most prestigious award program, The Anthony N. Sabga Award for Caribbean Excellence. Rose holds an MFA in Studio Art from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and currently lives and works in her hometown of Bridgetown, Barbados.
See more about the artist at https://johanssonprojects.com/artist/sheena-rose
Barbadian visual artist Sheena Rose recently received a 2026 Anthony N. Sabga Caribbean Award of Excellence for Laureate of the Arts & Letters. The other awardees were Niven R. Narain (Guyana / United States), Dean Nevers (Jamaica), Shamelle Rice (Barbados), and Tannecia Stephenson (Jamaica). [Also see our previous post Five Caribbean Leaders Honored with 2026
