From Mallory Square to Miami

Artist Ray Rolston was a character and a fixture at Key West’s famed Mallory Square, where massive crowds gather nightly during Sunset Celebration.

If you visited the Conch Republic at any time in the last couple of decades, you've no doubt seen Rolston or admired his work. Perhaps you even have one of his pieces framed in your home as a reminder to return, as so many of us do.

Rolston died five years ago, but his love for Key West is a legacy that lives on through the vibrancy of his work that is now on full display in Miami. “Conch House Hues featuring the Art of Ray Rolston” is being exhibited at the Historic Ward Rooming House Gallery in Overtown, operated by Christopher Norwood, founder of Hampton Art Lovers.

The show was carefully and lovingly curated by Norwood, who enlisted the assistance of Michelle Rolston, Ray’s daughter.

“The conch house and the Bahamian connection immediately grabbed me. The architecture in Rolston’s paintings is like an individual, a person. His work highlights the vernacular of that architecture and that connection,” said Norwood, who at one time ran the Key West Africana Festival and is familiar with the island.

Additionally, the Historic Ward Rooming House was built by Bahamian Shadrach Ward in the 1900s, so this is a full circle moment.

And Rolston, who was a native of Guyana and lived in Miramar, Fla., for 20 years, sold his work in the craft show circuit with his sister. At that time, his paintings focused on both marine life and the Art Deco movement, of which the former was inspired by his love of diving.

Then one day, he took a day trip with a friend to Key West and fell in love with the island. After just one visit, he made up his mind to relocate and the coconut shell he found and painted marine life on sparked his Mallory Square business.

While on the island, Rolston found a wharf with a building on it and met the owner who he learned was planning on constructing apartments there.

“That’s when my dad went back to Miramar and packed up his art supplies and went back to Key West to stay permanently,” said Michelle Rolston.

At first, he slept in the wharf and “The first time I visited him there, I slept on a table and my son slept underneath. By the next time I visited, his apartment was built,” she said. "He lived in that apartment for about a year and eventually moved around, living in three different houses around Old Town Key West.”

“He said it was the closest to Guyana he’d ever experienced,” said his daughter Michelle. “He had a studio and gallery in Key West for over two decades. Key West enabled him to live in his passion.”

He then began painting garbage cans around town and this opened the door to more opportunity, earning him a contract with the city.

“This got him out there and eventually he met more people at Mallory Square," said Rolston.

Key West was such a part of the artists’ life that his daughter held his memorial service at the popular sunset nightspot where he encountered so many fans of his work over the years.

“Key West really allowed him to do the kind of art he always wanted to do,” she said.

Featured in the "Conch Hues" exhibition at the gallery in Overtown are 30 of his artworks, both upstairs and downstairs. There are four pieces framed in recycled wood made from old lobster traps that are grouped together and displayed on the first floor at the foot of the stairs.

There is one unframed piece of the Hogfish Bar & Grill displayed on the second floor. It was Rolston's last artwork before his death. The exhibition space is awash in color that pays homage to the Key West landscape. The lush tropical foliage, colorful conch houses, historic landmarks, buildings and sunsets that Rolston knew so well from his years at Sunset Celebration are all represented.

“Conch House Hues: The Art of Ray Rolston” presented by Hampton Art Lovers is on display through June 7 at the Historic Ward Rooming House, 249 NW 9 St., Miami, FL 33136. Open Thursday through Sunday from noon to 6 p.m.