Gangstas ,Disciplez + the Doiley Boyz

Gangstas, Disciplez +the Doiley Boyz Mixed Media Works By

Ebony G. Patterson 1

Ebony G.Patterson!s Gangstas, Disciplez and Doiley Boyz series engage the contemporary gendered debates that are transforming the male body in Jamaica. In dancehall and inner city culture, the male body as canvas reveals the multiple discourses that frame popular cultural reference for Jamaican men from the working class and Kingston!s inner cities. Fashioned male bodies with bleached faces, posing as hardcore gangsters emphasize the importance of feminized aesthetics in masculine discourses and Patterson ably delineates these discursive paths across the faces of her Gangstas, Disciplez and Doiley Boyz.

Paradoxes of hardcore Jamaican masculinity collide in the flesh and are immortalised in painful relief, as Patterson!s artistic renderings wrest these images from their inner spaces and thrust them into the outer world.

Patterson!s pieces are rich in their grotesque attention to exaggerated details that silently scream their paradoxical truths. They highlight gendered inversions and raise multiple questions about the contemporary construction of the aggressive machismo and hardcore nihilism of dancehall!s Gangstas, Disciplez and Kingston!s Doiley Boyz.

- Donna P. Hope Author -'Inna di Dance: Popular Culture and the Politics of Identity in Jamaica' 2

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Photo Index Blood Bredda Crew, Mixed Media on Handcut paper with Rhinestones, 48 in x 24 in,2008 Blood Bredda Crew ,Detail, 2008Untitled I- IV ( Khani + di Krew) From the Disciplez Series, Mixed Media, Variable Edition Print, 21 in x21 in , edition of 6, 2008 Blingas II, Mixed Media on Handcut Paper with Rhinestones, 48 in x 72 in 2008 Blingas I, Mixed Media on Handcut Paper with Rhinestones, 48 in x 60 in 2008 Souljah,From the Disciplez Series , Mixed Media on Paper with wall paper, Toy Soldiers + Shelf, Variable Dimensions, 2009 Souljah, From the Disciplez Series, (Installation View) Untitled (Series II) Doiley Boyz I- XVI, Mixed Media on Paper, 8 in ( diameter), 2009 (details) Reyo,From the Disciplez Series ( dyptic), Mixed Media on Paper, with Shelf, Toy Cars + Shelves, Variable Dimensions, 2009 (Detail) Images are in chronological order*

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Brief Bio Born in Kingston, Jamaica. Lives and works in Kingston, Jamaica and Lexington,KY (USA) Assistant Professor in Painting and Drawing ,University of Kentucky , Lexington, KY Education: MFA Printmaking and Drawing, Washington University in St. Louis,St. Louis MO BFA in Painting, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, Kingston , Jamaica Solo Exhibits 2009

Gangstas, Disciplez + the Doiley Boyz, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, Cag[e] Gallery,Kingston, Jamaica 2007 Hybrid, Seeline Gallery ,Santa Monica, California 2006 Case Studies: Venus, Cuts and Aprons, Mutual Gallery,Kingston, Jamaica Invited and Juried Exhibits 2009

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Wi Did Di Deh, Morlan Gallery, Transylvania University, Lexington, KY Incognito, Santa Monica Art Museum, Santa Monica, CA Ports of Exchange, New Art Ways, Hartford, CT2008 2008 National Biennial , National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica Art on Paper 2008, Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro,NC Boys of Summer, Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago, IL Looky Here ,Summer Drawing Exhibit, Otis College of Art , Los Angeles, CA Curator's Eye III: Ceremony in Space, Time and Sound, National Gallery of Jamaica , Kingston, Jamaica.

Taboo Identities: Race, Sexuality + the Body- A Jamaican context, Olympia Art Centre Kingston, Jamaica, Tuska Center of Contemporary Art, Lexington,KY New Blue Emerging- First Kentucky Art Biennial, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, KY Wall to Wall: Large Scale Drawing, Lexington Art League, Lexington , KY Next: The Invitation Exhibiton of Emerging Art,Merchandise Mart, Chicago,IL2007 Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY -Curated by Tumelo Mosaka, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art Brooklyn Museum

*Patterson is represented by Seeline Gallery in Santa Monica, CA, USA

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