Known for her experimentalist, thought-provoking approach to art, Ebony G Patterson has been on our radar for quite some time. And at 30 years old, the Kingstonian artist-cum-educator (she’s currently assistant professor in painting and drawing at the University of Kentucky), already has an impressive list of accolades. SO caught up with the fashionable and eloquent Patterson at the National Gallery last week, mere hours before she returned to Lexington, Kentucky to assume her teaching duties.

Patterson has participated in several group exhibitions locally and overseas since 2001, and received an Honours Diploma in painting at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in 2004. Two years later she enrolled at the Sam Fox College of Art and Design at Washington University, St Louis, and graduated with a Master’s in Fine Arts in Printmaking and Drawing.

The enterprising Patterson has mounted more than seven public and private collections in Jamaica and the USA; and is currently the youngest invited artist involved in the National Biennial exhibition. Add to that several awards and scholarships locally and abroad, and you begin to understand why her name is constantly on the lips of prominent art aficionados.

The prolific artist, who made her name by examining the female form, has now developed an even deeper fascination — representing masculinity in the Jamaican landscape. And after being announced as the recipient of the Rex Nettleford fellowship in cultural studies last week for her innovative art-meets-video installation in an inner-city community, she has gained even more recognition.

The year-long project will interrogate and represent gender roles via a community photo studio and live-feed broadcasts throughout areas of Jamaica and the Caribbean, and will conclude with a massive mixed media installation. Yet despite the media attention and unmistakable respect from her peers, Patterson remains unfazed by it all, telling SO her greatest wish is to continue doing what she loves.