With a career spanning two decades and two hemispheres, British-born Max Patté is a multi-media contemporary artist whose work traverses the emotive spectrum of sculpture and the qualities of the liminal spaces between light and colour.
Patté began his artistic journey at the Wimbledon School of Art in London (1997-2000). In 2008, while residing in New Zealand, he was projected onto the international art scene upon the unveiling of Solace in the Wind, a striking two-meter-high cast iron statue of a naked man leaning into the elements of Wellington’s harbour. Demonstrating his propensity for dovetailing eminent skill alongside intuitive navigation of the ebbs and flows of the market, Solace is a piece that exemplifies Patté’s ability to instil delicate tension into his work, drawing the viewer in to examine the intricacy cast, often in slightly larger than life scale, in light, stone, bronze and iron.
Adjacent to his sculptural practice, Patté produces geometric light sculptures, abstracted figurative and cluster arrangements shaped by an immersive exploration of the elemental nature of light, space and colour. He is fascinated by the principles that govern his vocation — balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, pattern, rhythm and unity —, coupled with a deep respect for the compositional arrangements found in nature and mathematics such as the golden ratio.
Now based on the Balearic island of Mallorca, following life chapters in Aotearoa and Australia, Patté's work is held in international collections, including the infamous art collection of The Groucho Club, London, and the patron of the arts Sir Ian McKellen's private collection.