Born in the United Kingdom and now based in Western Australia, Dale Pattenden is a contemporary abstract painter whose work explores migration and identity.

 

His paintings combine the gestural energy of Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline and Mark Rothko with the immediacy of graffiti and the atmospheric qualities of landscape.

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Pattenden studied Contemporary Fine Art at the University of Portsmouth, where he was introduced to postmodern theory and the writings of Jacques Derrida.

 

While his education questioned the stability of meaning, his current practice embraces a contemporary position that acknowledges uncertainty while continuing to search for truth and transcendence.

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Working within what can be described as psychological abstraction, Pattenden uses the visual language of Modernism to address the existential and theological concerns of the twenty-first century.

 

His paintings draw on his experience of emigrating from the United Kingdom to Australia and reflect a sustained interest in human connection with nature, each other and the Devine.

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Major bodies of work include the Sculpting Silence Series, Emigration Series, Spiritscapes Series and the Reclaiming the Child-like Faith Series.

 

Across this vast spectrum of work, Pattenden believes that Art serves as both a means of personal inquiry and an act of worship, transforming gesture, form, colour, and concept into meditations on displacement, revelation and renewal.