Pattern & Language

Taking as its starting point the 1970s Pattern and Decoration (P&D) movement, this exhibition looks at how pattern is used in contemporary narrative painting. It brings together artists who use the language of pattern in different ways, and is broadly divided across two themes: social engagement, and resistance to dominant ideologies. The exhibition features work by Kim MacConnel – a founding member of the P&D movement – whose witty collages address uncomfortable political issues, and Alessandro Raho who presents us with a personal reflection on his upbringing in the Bahamas. They are joined by Andrew Mania’s multi-layered portraits alongside the works of several other artists, together revealing how pattern can be understood as a carrier of history and emotion.

With the main motivation behind the setting up of P&D – Minimalism’s rejection of pattern – no longer a dominant force in culture today, and the production of pattern transformed by technology, the exhibition attempts to articulate a new critical terrain that looks at what it means when artists today choose to cover surfaces of their paintings with pattern. How can meaning be drawn out of these works? Are the patterns smaller stories within the work or part of wider themed ideas and motifs that connect across multiple works? And how can we think of these questions in relation to Michelle Grabner’s motivation for her pattern work where she says ‘that [since] all forms are political, [she has] committed [herself] to re-articulating vernacular patterns in order to shift the unobserved into critical sight.’ In one sense, pattern elements in narrative painting today can be seen to reflect a continuity; attempts to build bridges with past generations and art traditions and to hold on to some kind of belief in collective experience, while discovering their own critical space in the contemporary milieu.

Notes 1. Grabner, M., (2025) Artist biography. Available at: https://www.jamescohan.com/artists/michelle-grabner (Accessed 17/12/25)

@akheimmelsom
@mirandamarega

Events:
Saturday 28th March 15:00 - 16:00
Alessandro Raho and TBC in discussion about the use of pattern and narratives in art.