Women To Know: Ebony Patterson

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, artist Ebony Patterson is abundantly clear on who she is and what she wants her work to represent, with an unapologetic confidence that makes her work feel all-encompassing.

“I aim to elevate those who have been deemed invisible/un-visible as a result of inherited colonial social structures, by incorporating their words, thoughts, dress, and pageantry as a tactic to memorialize them. It is a way to say: I am here, and you cannot deny me,” Patterson proudly proclaims.

The rich, vibrant colors of her art initially draw you in, but it’s the messages surrounded by the surface beauty where Patterson aims to truly connect. “Using the paradoxical to convey important messages, she draws on far reaching vernaculars of art history, religious imagery and popular culture.” 

Patterson uses the beauty of her art as a means to trap viewers “physically, psychologically and emotionally” in her compositions. By purposely “shrouding figures almost completely, she creates a presence of bodies no longer there.”

By artistically “juxtaposing visibility and invisibility, death and survival,” Patterson’s art is “filled with an overwhelming sense of hope.”