ELIZABETH COLOMBA
Drawing on Old Master techniques and sensibilities, Colomba’s incredibly detailed and rich paintings reclaim mythological, historical, and allegorical narratives from the long-standing legacy of portraiture. Her love of storytelling from a young age carries over into the paintings she does today, newly placing and lauding the Black figure into a pictorial narrative form from which it had been historically omitted.
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​Through the power of portraiture, Colomba’s work challenges conventions of beauty and significance, placing her figures in prominence and redressing the erasures of women of color across the canon of art history.
“By generating an environment for my subjects to inhabit a space that honors their presence and place in and through culture and time allows me to redefine not only how black people have been conditioned to exist, but also how black people have been conditioned to reflect upon themselves. ”
-- Elizabeth Colomba
Elizabeth Colomba was born in France and raised in Épinay-sur-Seine, from parents of Martinican descent. She lives and works in New York City. Elizabeth received a degree in applied art from the Estienne School of Art, Paris and also studied at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris.
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Colomba's paintings have been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Park Avenue Armory, New York; California African American Museum, Los Angeles; the Balthus Grand Chalet, Switzerland; the International Biennial of Contemporary Art (BIAC), Martinique; Volta, New York; the Fondazione Biagiotti Progetto Arte, Florence and the inaugural triennial at Columbia University. Her work is included in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Portland Museum of Art, Maine; The Studio Museum in Harlem; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; The Park Avenue Armory, New York; JP Morgan Collection; Yale University; and Princeton University Art Museum among others. Her work was also featured on the cover of the New Yorker to commemorate Juneteenth 2022, and will be included in Vogue US's December 2023 issue.