PATRON Gallery

About the art/ists

PATRON represents an array of budding art icons from around the world. They describe their gallery as “community and locally driven, with an international lens.” Basically, they’re capturing what’s happening in Contemporary art, globally, by featuring local artists making work that can hang with the top hits of the international art scene.

From Kay Hoffman’s amorphous alabaster figurines that look like Michaelangelo’s acid trip, to Liat Yossifor’s large, hand-manipulated paintings that put my early finger paintings to shame, to traditional photographers and abstract painters and artists who refuse to pick a medium, PATRON’s artists use a wide variety of media to accomplish their conceptually-driven work.

PATRON also represents artists like Caroline Kent and Carmen Winant. Collectively, these artists use their chosen media to express ideas about language, materiality*, outer space and the female body, and other big ideas that are better experienced in person. 

When someone mentions “materiality” in an art context, they’re talking about the materials used to construct a piece and how those materials influence the work. For example, in Liat Yossifor’s Axis of rotation, the materiality of the piece is the distinct thick, hand-manipulated paint used to make it. In discussions of materiality, it is not the object or image as a whole, but the specific materials used to create it that are of interest.

Carmen Winant,

For the Conjunction of Two Planets (left)

It’s not like other galleries

PATRON emphasizes the importance of discourse around art. Contemporary art, in general, is known for pushing new narratives and ideas into the public sphere, and what better topic to discuss than ideas?

Many of PATRON’s artists explore sociopolitical themes like race, culture, and gender. They aim to foster conversation, not only about the work itself, but also about the concepts, emotions, and ideas it sparks for the viewer. They emphasize the importance of letting artists lead the conversation about their work, supporting artists’ voices by publishing “CONTEXT” videos on their website. The CONTEXT series highlights artists’ methods, materials, themes of interest, and work from their current shows.

PATRON hopes that people will use their gallery as a place to spend time with art, connect with friends, ask questions, or even just hang out and read a book. Reading a book in a movie theater-turned-gallery could be your main-character origin story. Visit PATRON to make those dreams a reality!

Kay Hoffman, Cool Breeze (above)

*What is conceptual art?

Conceptual artists prioritize the ideas and concepts behind their work over the materials used to create it. Basically, the meaning of the work is more important than whatever it is constructed from. The materials or methods used to generate conceptual art can be anything — performance, found materials, painting, writing — conceptual art doesn’t even have to yield a finished product. The ideas underpinning conceptual art often question norms, like art world conventions or sociopolitical conditions, with the pioneers of the movement emerging in the 1960s, during an era of widespread social change.

Visitors should ring the doorbell outside the front door to be buzzed into PATRON Gallery. You don’t need a reservation or anything, they’ll let you in.

New shows every six weeks.