Masculinity and Jamaican dancehall culture will be the focus of tonight's Partner Re Lecture Series at the Bermuda National Gallery (BNG).

The event closes out the Bacardi Limited Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary Art 2010.

Ebony G. Patterson, assistant professor in painting and drawing at the University of Kentucky, will be speaking about her ongoing body of artwork 'Gangstas, Disciplez & the Doiley Boyz'.

The 29-year-old artist from Kingston, Jamaica is well known for her artwork exploring issues of Caribbean gender, sexuality and identity.

Artwork in her 'Gangstas' series depicts young black men with faces notably lighter than the rest of their bodies. The boys are framed by white doiles that gives a halo effect.

"My work started out as a conversation with skin bleaching," said Miss Patterson. "I wanted to look at the transformation of the machismo within dancehall space. Essentially, my work uses the feminine to measure the masculine."

She said that while in past years skin bleaching was associated with low self-esteem, in Jamaica it has more to do with fashion.

"In the past, it was practiced widely amongst women," she said. "In recent years, it has become a kind of uniform for male dancers in the Jamaican dancehall culture. It is almost the reverse minstrel look from days gone by, when white people would darken their faces for entertainment purposes."

The practice of skin bleaching, which is done by creams, laundry soap, toothpaste or other harsh chemicals, can be dangerous.

"The chemicals are illegal and a lot are loaded with mercury," Miss Patterson explained.

The Caribbean is being used as a dumping ground for dangerous skin bleaching products, she said.

In the United Kingdom, they are illegal because of the health implications including possible skin cancer and mercury poisoning. But she said authorities in the Caribbean are trying to educate people, rather than arrest storekeepers.

"I heard my mother talk about these things [skin bleaching] when she was young in the 1970s," said Miss Patterson. "To hear this conversation all this time later, was bizarre. When we hear people in Jamaica talk about skin bleaching it is as if they are going to buy a dress or a new pair of shoes."

Miss Patterson attended the Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica, the only arts school in the English-speaking Caribbean. After her undergraduate degree she did a masters degree at Washington University in St. Louis, Kentucky. She now teaches at the University of Kentucky.

"I just work in Kentucky," she said, "I am back in Jamaica on a regular basis. So far, my art career has been an interesting ride. I had my first major museum show in graduate school at the Brooklyn Museum. That saw me having representation in Los Angeles, California."

Not long after graduation, she took part in the The National Biennial of Jamaica, and the next year was added to the invited list of the Biennial, which is a high honour.

"It was a fantastic feeling," she said. She also participated in an alternative biennial in Haiti called the Ghetto Biennial. Her work for this exhibition looked at voodoo culture and sexual orientation in Haitian culture.

"In Haiti even though they are homophobic there is this heavy sense of homo-tolerance because of voodoo," she said. "If you are a woman and a lesbian it is believed they are possessed by a particular spirit. And the same if you are male. Both of these spirits are female spirits. In that way I thought it was interesting that there is this kind of dynamic understanding of gender through spirituality."

She said this year has been the highpoint of her career, so far. She took part in the National Talent Five in Jamaica, organised by the National Gallery of Jamaica every five years. She became acquainted with the Bermuda National Gallery through an association with two outside jurors for the Biennial.

"I have never been to Bermuda," she said. "The practice of skin bleaching is not common here, as far as I am aware. The way that Jamaicans do it purely in a fashion sense, as opposed to doing it for social reasons. That is quite unique, although ti is also done in Japan and China."

She said there are many musicians who are advocating the practice such as Lisa Hyper, and Vybz Kartel.

"For my lecture tonight, I am just having a dialogue about the work, and about ideas about masculinity and where do these notions really come from," she said. "How do they change culturally. I believe gender is ever changing. At one point men were wearing tights. If they wear them now eyebrows go up. At one point men wore earrings. Then it was feminine. Now it is masculine again. Gender is ever moving."

The opening reception for Miss Patterson's lecture at the BNG will be at 5.30pm this evening. The lecture will be at 6pm. Tickets are $10 for members of the BNG and $20 for non-members. Seating is limited. Call to reserve: 295-9428. For more information e-mail: education@bng.bm or visit www.bng.bm.