Patrick Earl Hammie is a visual artist and educator whose interdisciplinary practice explores Black identity, memory, and liberation. Working across portraiture, installation, and digital media, he draws from history, speculative fiction, and popular culture to challenge dominant narratives and reimagine Black presence as foundational. Recent projects like I AM… LEGEND and I AM… THE NIGHT confront the afterlives of slavery and systemic violence while carving space for joy, care, and resistance. Hammie transforms portraiture into a radical site of visibility, inviting viewers into confrontation—with history, with Black humanity, and with the urgent possibility of a freer future.
His artwork is included in several collections, including the David C. Driskell Center, the John Michael Kohler Art Center, and the JPMorgan Chase Art Collection. His work has been exhibited internationally, with shows in Germany, India, and South Africa, and across the United States. Notable venues include the California African American Museum, The Drawing Center, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Madlozi Contemporary Art, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Kunstwerk Carlshütte, Bo Bartlett Center, and the Zhou B. Art Center.
He is the inaugural recipient of the Alice C. Cole ’42 Fellowship from Wellesley College and has been as an artist-in-residence at both the John Michael Kohler Art Center and Millay Arts (Millay Colony for the Arts). Hammie’s work has been supported by a variety of fellowships and grants from organizations such as the National Science Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, Midwestern Voices and Visions, the Puffin Foundation, and the Tanne Foundation. He has also received support from the states of Illinois and Connecticut, as well as from numerous private foundations.
Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Hammie holds a BA from Coker University and an MFA from the University of Connecticut. He teaches Studio Art at all levels and has co-taught interdisciplinary seminars spanning the Humanities and Physics. Hammie currently serves as the James Avery Professor and Chair of Studio Art at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he is also the inaugural Director’s Fellow in the School of Art & Design with affiliation with the Department of African American Studies.