Ebony G. Patterson

Ebony Grace Patterson (born 1981, Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican-born visual artist and educator. She is known for her large and colorful tapestries created out of various materials such as, glitter, sequins, fabric, toys, beads, faux flowers, jewelry, and other embellishments. Her "Gangstas for Life series" of dancehall portraits, and her garden-inspired installations.

She has taught at the University of Virginia, Edna Manley College School of Visual and Performing Arts, and has been an Associate Professor in Painting and Mixed Media at the University of Kentucky since 2007. Her work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Jamaica, the United States, and abroad.

In 2024, Patterson will co-curate the 6th edition of arts triennial Prospect New Orleans, and the first artist to do so.

Early life and education Patterson was born in 1981, Kingston, Jamaica. She studied painting at Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica and graduated in 2004. Patterson received an MFA degree in 2006 in printmaking and drawing from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. Patterson's artwork often addresses social and political issues related to feminism, violence, gender identity, and sexuality. Her work has been exhibited at art galleries around the world and has been critically acclaimed for its powerful messages.

Patterson's 2016 solo show at the Museum of Arts and Design, Dead Treez, incorporated several appliquéd commercially-woven Jacquard weavings in which Patterson used restaged images of photographs that had been taken of murder victims in Jamaica and then circulated on social media. The exhibition also included a collection of mannequins in vibrant Jamaican dance hall wear (titled Swag Swag Krew), and a series of vitrines with artificial flora and jewelry belonging to the collection of the Museum of Arts and Design and in which patterned bodies reclined (titled ...buried again to carry on growing...), again referencing the victims of violent crime.

Her solo exhibition Ebony G. Patterson...while the dew is still on the roses...organized by and presented at the Pérez Art Museum Miami in 2018 gathered a number of artworks including drawings, tapestries, and sculptures that feature glitter, appliqués, pins, embellishments, fabric, tassels, brooches, pearls, and beads. On the occasion, a monograph was published to celebrate the artist's production.

In 2018, Patterson was invited to participate in the first edition of Open Spaces, a series of installations, performances, and talks in Kansas City, Missouri. Her installation ...called up focused on one of two public pools in Swope Park. She ran a Kickstarter campaign to "reclaim and revitalize" the site dedicated to Dr. Harry M. Gilkey, who used the pool in 1956 to teach hydrotherapy to youth with physical handicaps. Patterson describes the site in the Kickstarter campaign, The work was received positively by those who frequently visit Swope Park. at the New York Botanical Garden, resulting in the 2023 exhibition "…things come to thrive…in the shedding…in the molting…".

Gangstas for Life series (2008 – ongoing) One of Patterson's most recognized body of work is a series entitled "Gangstas for Life," which explores conceptions of masculinity within Dancehall culture. Additionally the series "seeks to examine the dichotomy between Jamaican stereotypical ideologies of homosexual practices and its parallels within dancehall culture." Red floral and fish motifs throughout the series serve to represent homosexuality within a predominantly homophobic culture. The artist explores perceptions of beauty as grotesque within the series, and her portrayal of the subjects' cracked, bleeding and oozing skin. She has said about this series: Beauty, gender, [the] body and the grotesque are an ongoing discussion in my work. I am enthralled by the repulsive, the bizarre and the objectness of bodies and the contradictions that both have to art - historically and culturally. The Jamaican vernacular, gendered cultural symbolisms and stereotypes serve as a platform for these discussions. I am enthused by words, conditions and experiences that objectify and abjectify.

Awards and Honors In 2023, the High Museum of Art awarded Patterson its David C. Driskell Prize in recognition of her contributions to the field of African American art.

On October 1, 2024, Patterson was named a MacArthur Fellow.

Public art collections Patterson's work is held in a number of public art institutions, this is a select list including:

Pérez Art Museum, Miami, Florida Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, Arkansas Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama Eastern Illinois University, Tarble Arts Center, Charleston, Illinois Edna Manley College of the Visual Arts, Kingston, Jamaica Nasher Museum, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica Wifredo Lam Center for Contemporary Art, Havana, Cuba Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Pont-Aven School of Contemporary Art, Pont-Aven, France Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City, New York