Ebony G. Patterson:…when the cuts erupt…the garden rings…and the warning is a wailing…

Ebony G. Patterson:…when the cuts erupt…the garden rings…and the warning is a wailing…

This March the ICA San José will host the first major solo exhibition of Ebony G. Patterson on the West Coast. The exhibition …when the cuts erupt…the garden rings…and the warning is a wailing…, will travel to the ICA San José from the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. The exhibition features a large-scale, five-panel work displayed with custom wallpaper, a sculptural and tapestry installation and two large works on paper hung as a diptych.

The ICA will augment the exhibition with additional works by Patterson showing the development of the garden motif throughout her career. Patterson has long been fascinated by the garden and its metaphorical possibilities. The garden is a “postcolonial” symbol in her work, where the invisible remnants of violent histories interrupt visible space. The garden offers many rich possibilities for interpretation – life and death, transplanting and notions of “native” vs “foreign,” beauty, danger, wealth, and sin.

Beginning with trees and plants amongst portraits and figurative work, the garden started as a background element which over the past eight years has developed into a focal point of Patterson’s work. This exhibition will introduce the ICA San José audience to a range of Patterson’s work in a variety of medium, including cut paper, tapestry, mixed media, photocollage, and sculpture.

Ebony G. Patterson: when the cuts erupt…the garden rings…and the warning is a wailing… is generously sponsored by Lead Sponsors to the exhibition Pamela and David Hornik, along with Exhibition Sponsors Martin Fox and John Green and Pete Scantland. Meaningful support is provided by Exhibition Partners Wayee Chu and Ethan Beard, Brook Hartzell and Tad Freese, Wanda Kownacki, and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago.

About Ebony G. Patterson
Ebony G. Patterson (b. 1981 in Kingston, Jamaica) received her BFA from Edna Manley College, Kingston, Jamaica (2004) and MFA from Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University, St. Louis (2006). Patterson has had solo exhibitions and projects at many US institutions including  Baltimore Museum of Art (2019); The Studio Museum in Harlem (2016); Atlanta Center for Contemporary Art (2016); and SCAD Museum of Art (2016). Dead Treez, Patterson’s first large-scale institutional solo show, originated at the Kohler Arts Center (2015) and traveled to Museum of Art and Design (2015); Boston University Art Galleries (2016); and UB Art Galleries, University at Buffalo (2017). Patterson’s work was included in Open Spaces Kansas City (2018), the 32nd São Paulo Bienal (2016); the 12th Havana Biennial (2015); Prospect.3: Notes for Now, New Orleans (2014), and the Jamaica Biennial (2014). She was an Artist-in-Residence at the Rauschenberg Foundation (2017) and served on the Artistic Director’s Council for Prospect.4, New Orleans (2017). Patterson has received numerous awards including a United States Artists Award (2018); Tiffany Foundation Grant (2017); Joan Mitchell Foundation Art Grant (2015); and the Andy Warhol Foundation Grant, in conjunction with Small Axe (2012). Patterson’s work is included in a number of public collections, including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Brooklyn Museum; Art Gallery of Ontario; The Studio Museum in Harlem; Museum of Arts and Design; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University; Speed Art Museum; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; and the National Gallery of Jamaica. Her first major survey exhibition …while the dew is still on the roses… opened at Pérez Art Museum Miami in 2018; then toured to Speed Art Museum (2019); and the Nasher Museum (2020). She currently has solo exhibitions on view at the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis and Kunsthal Aarhus, Denmark, and will be included in the upcoming Athens and Liverpool Biennials (2021). Patterson is represented by Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago, and Hales Gallery, New York and London.