Sherece Rainford was born to Jamaican parents in London, England in 1973. She graduated with a BA in Business Studies with a specialisation in Marketing from the University of Sussex in 1996. In 2022, she established Gallery OCA (Gallery of Caribbean Art) in London which focuses on Caribbean contemporary art.
Gallerist and collector, Sherece Rainford was born to Jamaican parents in London, England in 1973. She graduated from the University of Sussex with a BA in Business Studies with a specialisation in Marketing in 1996. Post-graduation, she worked in both the education and corporate worlds, focusing on business, communications, and marketing, leading to various roles as a Senior Business Development Consultant since 2005. These included a position as a student business advisor and marketing specialist at University College London (UCL) from 2013-14, and as the Programme Lead and Lecturer on an Entrepreneurship Programme at UCL Innovation and Enterprise between from 2016-18. Prior to founding her own gallery, she was also Head of Operations and Development for the UK, Caribbean, and India for the Thebes Group, a consulting firm, where she managed contract procedures for these regions.
Rainford founded Gallery OCA (Gallery of Caribbean Art) in 2020 at the Cromwell Place art venue in South Kensington, London, SW7. However, the gallery primarily operates as an online space and is physically present at Cromwell Place only for short-term in-person exhibitions. The gallery is primarily dedicated to exhibiting Caribbean artists: either those who remain there or those within the diaspora who still maintain a connection to their heritage. As such, it shares a similar approach to an earlier London venture, Shakka Gyata Dedi’s Black-Art Gallery, which for about a decade exhibited exclusively ‘Afrikan-Caribbean’ (African with a ‘k’) artists. Gallery OCA aims to support Caribbean heritage artists, nurture the islands’ historical legacy, and bolster the sector’s commercial viability. Rainford’s deep appreciation for her own Caribbean heritage is a driving force behind the gallery. Recognising the underrepresentation of Caribbean art in the global art scene, she was inspired to establish a platform for it, both socially and commercially, while also educating the wider industry and its investors about its significance. Gallery OCA takes pride in uncovering and showcasing diverse narratives of Caribbean culture, spanning its history, while simultaneously looking forward. The gallery strives to renew enthusiasm for Caribbean art, chronicling the Islands’ history through the works of its artists. Its first five-year plan is to have a transformative impact for Caribbean artists and to create an effectively balanced representation, empowering emerging artists and equipping them with ample resources to flourish in their field. The gallery also exhibits the works of established and mid-career Caribbean artists and Rainford aims to foster transnational sales through her programme.
Gallery OCA’s debut exhibition in 2021–22: Anthony Daley: Corporeality., featured the works of the eponymous Jamaican-born British artist. His paintings blended his Jamaican memories with visions of the future, evoking images of water and sky, yet remaining enigmatic; techniques such as over-painting were employed to explore notions of beauty amidst chaos. Daley's focus on the impact of colour and material interplay challenged abstract art norms, offering immersive, vivid-hued canvases. In 2023, the Gallery presented Pouring from a Vessel of Knowledge featuringJamaican-British female artists, Sonia Elizabeth Barrett, Merissa Hylton, Marcia Patterson, and Katasha Rose. Commemorating the 75th anniversary of the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush, the exhibition showcased works on themes of ancestral wisdom and post-colonial legacies through various mediums. Gallery OCA’s last exhibition in 2023, COZY: Comfortable in My Skin took its title from Beyonce’s 2022 song Cosy and the chorus Comfortable in my skin, Cozy with who I am. Curated by the Ghanaian-British curator Chantel Akworkor Thompson, the show expanded the Gallery's parameters to encompass African, Caribbean and diaspora artists, including the Barbadian, Alanis Forde; Ghanaian, Crystal Yayra Anthony; South Africans, Naledi Tshegafatso Modupi and Zana Masombuka; British-Trinidadian, Bryony Benge-Abbott; and Bermudian-born and China-based, Gherdai Hassell. The exhibition explored hybrid identities by interweaving themes of power and vulnerability and offering a diverse view on womanhood and self-actualisation. Sherece Rainford lives and works in London.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Sherece Rainford]
Publications related to [Sherece Rainford] in the Ben Uri Library