Patricia Encarnación (Dominican Republic, 1991)

Encarnacion, began her BFA education in 2009 at the School of Design Altos de Chavon, receiving an AAS in Fine Art two years later. She continued her studies in the Communication Art program, getting her associate degree in 2012. After getting a full-tuition scholarship, in May 2014, she completed her degree at Parsons The New School of Design, New York. Later she participated at The Centro Leon Jiménez Biennial and won the prize awarded by the city of Cadiz for cultural immersion. A couple of years later she participated in multiple residencies with institutions like MuseumsQuartier Vienna & Kovent Catalonia. In 2018, Encarnacion was selected again to participate at The Centro Leon Jiménez Biennial, winning the special nomination by the French consulate in Martinique. Encarnación is currently based in New York, recently awarded a full-tuition scholarship for the graduate program in the Caribbean and Latin American Studies at NYU.

Patricia Encarnación is an Afro-Dominican artist, who explores the perception of being from the Caribbean, through quotidian objects, landscapes, and aesthetics she was exposed to growing up in her homeland. Her work intends to dismantle impositions of social roles and biased history by showcasing their effect on herself and her surroundings. She works to decode the prejudices built by society by questioning, analyzing, and openly exposing its origins. Encarnación’s work is rooted in exploring the nuances of tropical aesthetics, decolonization, and the dismantling of imposed social roles and history.

Her work here seeks to present an Afro-Dominican reality free from imposed colonial narratives and understandings. Encarnación connects us directly to the island and its native inhabitants, presenting us with cultural wisdom and critiques against the tourism industry in the Dominican Republic.

Series El Negro Detrás de la Oreja

El Negro Detrás de la Oreja (The Black Behind the Ear) aims to enhance Dominican culture by marginalizing racial, sexist, and classist stigmas that disrupt our society.

Through a series of popular objects cast in porcelain and photographs, I create compositions with minimalist aesthetics interpreting popular Dominican phrases to depict 'Dominicanidad' in a decolonial context.

This project highlights how the culture of the Caribbean tends to be defined through the voices of its colonizers, thus excluding the rich heritage of our African and Taino ancestors.

“The Black Behind the Ear” is an old Dominican idiom first used in the 1883 poem by Juan Antonio Alix. This series, just like the poem, is a criticism of racial prejudice when Dominicans prioritize their European or white heritage while simultaneously rejecting their African roots.

Series I am from where you vacation 

The series of collages, paintings, and photographs, I am From Where You Vacation, explores the Caribbean perception as 'Paradise' and its exotification. The project depicts surreal scenes in a tropical landscape to showcase different realities focused on the polarized living experiences between Caribbean Locals (mainly Caribbean women of color) and tourists.

As an afro Caribbean woman, I have perceived different facets of the island historically, lived in person and from the diaspora, which allows creating visual content that criticizes colonial behaviors and structures that the region continues to carry on from different points of views.

I am From Where You Vacation challenges the idea of 'Paradise' and criticizes the colonialist structures enforced by the tourism industry practices, aiming to solidify an anti-colonialist visual discourse.