Ken Pattern Scenes from Western Canada

Ken Pattern is a Vancouver-based artist who was born in New Westminster. During the 1960s, he spent many years traveling around the world before attending Simon Fraser University, majoring in sociology. In the 1970s, Pattern became active in the environmental movement and worked as a graphic artist for SPEC (Society for Pollution and Environmental Control) and later for the Canadian government before embarking on a career in visual arts. Pattern held his first art exhibition in Vancouver in 1978. The following year he enrolled at Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver, majoring in printmaking (lithography). He has been a member of Malaspina Printmakers since 1979. The lithographs in this exhibition depict images of Canada and were created here in Malaspina’s studio on Granville Island. The fine art medium of lithography is a complex and time consuming art form that demands both skill and patience and is well suited to the intricate drawings Pattern creates on stone. In today’s world with its emphasis on haste and technology, lithography is valued by collectors because it is done by hand, as it was in the 1700s when the process was invented. Pattern has produced a significant body of work including lithographs, drawings, and paintings that have received critical acclaim and have been shown in solo and group exhibitions in Asia, Europe, and North America. His work can be found in both public and private collections across the globe. Over the past 30 years, Pattern lived in China and Indonesia, but spent most summers here at Malaspina creating his prints. Vancouver is now his year round home.