The Collection

Ebony G. Patterson is a multimedia artist whose dazzling, intricately layered works explore issues of visibility, invisibility, and power in postcolonial contexts. Working across painting, tapestry, installation, photography, video, and sculpture, Patterson employs glitter, sequins, fabric, faux flowers, toys, beads, and other embellishments to seduce viewers into confronting themes of race, gender, class, violence, and youth culture. Her practice transforms adornment into a tactic of empowerment and memorialization, elevating those historically marginalized or erased.

Patterson’s acclaimed Gangstas for Life series (2008–) examined dancehall culture and ostentatious “bling” as a means of achieving visibility. Since 2013, gardens—both real and imagined—have become a central metaphor in her work, envisioned as sites of mourning, regeneration, and resistance. Immersive projects such as her survey …while the dew is still on the roses… (Pérez Art Museum Miami, 2018; toured 2019–20) and …things come to thrive…in the shedding…in the molting… (New York Botanical Garden, 2023) exemplify her ability to merge splendor with social critique.

She holds a BFA from Edna Manley College (Kingston, 2004) and an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis (2006). Her work has been presented at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Baltimore Museum of Art, Kunsthal Aarhus, Liverpool Biennial, Brooklyn Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, ICA Boston, and the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo, among many others. In 2024, Patterson became the first artist to co-curate the Prospect New Orleans Triennial.

Her works are held in numerous public collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, SFMOMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Pérez Art Museum Miami, the High Museum, Speed Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, and the National Gallery of Jamaica. Patterson has received the MacArthur Fellowship (2024), the David C. Driskell Prize (2023), a United States Artist Fellowship (2018), a Tiffany Foundation Grant (2017), and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Art Grant (2015).