1976-Present
Works in the Collection
Biography
Elizabeth Colomba was born in 1976 in France and raised in Épinay-sur-Seine. Colomba is a French painter of Martinique descent known for reimagining Black figures in historical settings. Drawing on Old Masters’ techniques, her work challenges the absence of Black bodies in Western art history. Colomba has stated that “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.”
Colomba studied at the Estienne School of Art and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris before moving to New York City, where she currently lives and works. Her paintings have been exhibited at institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, LACMA, the Musée d’Orsay, and Columbia University’s Wallach Art Gallery. Her work is in the permanent collections of The Studio Museum in Harlem, Princeton University Art Museum, and the Park Avenue Armory, to name a few.