At the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), life-size sculptures of jet-black vultures by artist Ebony G. Patterson sparkle subtly in the sunlight as viewers meander their terrain. These birds huddle around pools of blood-red plants—begonias, caladium, hypoestes, and impatiens—that appear like bruises on an otherwise pastel-colored landscape surrounding the 1902 Haupt Conservatory. Inside the historic greenhouse, more vultures have ventured, joining a molting, all-white peacock, while a zigzagging pathway is lined with frosted cast-glass sculptures of extinct plants the artist found in the garden’s archive.
Known for her collage-like works and intricate tapestries, Patterson, who is based in Chicago and Kingston, Jamaica, has been using realistic depictions of plants in her art practice for over a decade. And yet this show, “…things come to thrive…in the shedding…in the molting…,” marks the first time that she has worked with living material in her work. “Ebony’s work is seeded with images of plants, images that we can recognize.
