Stunning Metal Decorative Art from the Cayman Islands

Whether it’s custom fencing, gates, lighting fixtures or an internationally recognized fine art sculpture, the team at Artisan Metal Works creates outstanding local metalwork in its Cayman Islands workshop.

Cayman Islands artist and precision metal fabricator Karoly Szücs is grateful for the discipline his father gave him to pursue his chosen career: “My father always told me, ‘son you should always have a trade’. I was 14 years old when I went to trade school. I became an autobody repairman for three years, which gave me a very good foundation for what I do today … shaping the metal, learning the tools. I’ve been relying most of my career on what I learned there.”

As the owner of Artisan Metal Works, Szücs runs his award-winning custom metal fabrication company from modern facilities in George Town, Grand Cayman. Here, his team of craftsmen build quality, custom metalwork that is representative of fine art pieces of the Cayman Islands commissioned for hotels, homes and businesses across the islands.

Since founding the company in 2002, Hungarian-born Szücs has relished the opportunity to create something from nothing but a raw piece of material. “It’s always difficult to make something for a client, especially when they give you only part of an idea, or sometimes they have no idea what they want,” he says of some commissions, such as home decor metal art in Cayman Islands. “But it’s up to me to make sense of sometimes nothing. Sometimes I see the end product only half of the way in, or when I’m almost finished.”

Szücs recalls a famous commission from the Ogier law firm, that wanted something stunning and original for its Grand Cayman offices, something that reflected the local culture. Recalls Szücs: “When we did the Ogier project they needed something which, when people walk into the boardroom, they would know they are in the Cayman Islands. I was trying to think about something futuristic. that’s how the turtle and the future came together. We created that piece [for Ogier] and I think it does represent them as well as represent the Cayman Islands.”

One of Szücs’ best-known works is his catboat sculpture ‘Dreams from the Sea’, on display in George Town’s Heroes Square. It was commissioned by National Trust Cayman Islands and was created by Szücs and his team from bronze, copper and marine-grade stainless steel and showcases the quality of welding and fabrication in the Cayman Islands.

For the first half of the twentieth century, the catboat was integral to the economy of the Cayman Islands. Most local children learned their sailing skills in small catboats, and catboat races were a favorite recreational activity. Recently there has been a revival of interest in this unique craft, and today the Caymanian catboat is celebrated as a living icon of Caymanian culture.

“I went to Little Cayman, to a museum there, and looked at the half-size replica of the boat, which we ended up making a skeleton out of, so that people can interact, work with the boat, see the structure and how it was built,” explained Szücs of his artistic approach to the piece.

From industrial fabrication to modern metal wall art in the Cayman Islands, Szücs gets “a great satisfaction out of creating something from my own idea and actually seeing it in front of me. It was a thought a few months before and now actually existed and I can’t believe it sometimes. I’m very proud of that,” he admits.

Szücs clearly has a passion to build more decorative art pieces for the Cayman Islands: “It would be an ultimate satisfaction if we could contribute to the Cayman landscape in the long run. Other big cities .. you travel from Miami to New York, Toronto, Vancouver, every second of third corner you see a sculpture of some kind. I think there is lots of room here to do that.

“Sometimes I’m walking round town or Camana Bay and I’m just seeing some locations like ‘wow, this could look so good’. It gets my imagination going, thinking about how we could do something here. I’m hopeful that one day we’re going to get the opportunity.“Hopefully we will be a shop creating sculptures for the Cayman Islands full time. That would be great. I would die a happy man.”

Original Source: https://caymanislandsguide.wordpress.com/2020/02/10/stunning-metal-decorative-art-from-the-cayman-islands/