Biography
Vanessa Hall-Patch is a Canadian printmaker and educator based on Bowen Island, British Columbia, whose layered works on paper document the vernacular architecture of rural coastal communities. Working at the intersection of traditional and digital printmaking, she combines photo-etching, screen printing, relief, embossment, gold leaf, and chine colle to create richly textured prints that explore themes of collecting, recording, and preservation.
Hall-Patch received her BFA from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and her MFA from the University of Alberta in Edmonton. She currently serves as Shop Technologies Coordinator and Continuing Studies instructor at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, where she shares her deep technical knowledge of printmaking processes with the next generation of artists.
Her artistic practice centers on the cabins, cottages, and homesteads of Bowen Island and the broader British Columbia landscape. In her ongoing Cabin Project series, she meticulously records structures that are disappearing from the rural landscape, transforming documentary photographs into multi-layered prints through a process that mirrors the accumulation of history in the buildings themselves. Her Kintsugi Cabins series references the Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics with gold, applying the concept to architectural subjects to celebrate imperfection and the passage of time.
In 2023, Hall-Patch achieved international recognition when her miniature print "Cabin Cutout - Farmland II" won the Grand Prize at the Awagami International Miniature Print Exhibition (AIMPE) in Tokushima, Japan, making her the first international artist to receive AIMPE's top honor. The work, a photo etching with screen print, digital elements, and chine colle on washi paper, was notably the smallest entry in the exhibition at just 2 by 3 inches. She has also received the Juror's Prize at the MTG International Print Triennial in Krakow, Poland, second place at the 35th Bradley International Print and Drawing Exhibition, and was a finalist for the Salt Spring National Art Prize.
Hall-Patch completed a Studio Workspace Residency at Women's Studio Workshop in Rosendale, New York, in 2018, working in the silkscreen studio. Her prints have been exhibited internationally at venues including the International Print Center New York, the Hall of Awa Japanese Handmade Paper in Tokushima, the Los Angeles Print Space at Pacific Design Center, the Rooms Provincial Art Gallery in Newfoundland, and the Highpoint Center for Printmaking in Minneapolis. Her work is held in private and public collections across Canada and internationally.
Key Facts
- Nationality
- 🇨🇦Canada
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Subjects
- Architecture
- Works Indexed
- 2
Frequently Asked Questions
Vanessa Hall-Patch is a Canadian printmaker and educator based on Bowen Island, British Columbia, whose layered works on paper document the vernacular architecture of rural coastal communities. Working at the intersection of traditional and digital printmaking, she combines photo-etching, screen printing, relief, embossment, gold leaf, and chine colle to create richly textured prints that explore themes of collecting, recording, and preservation.
Vanessa Hall-Patch's work was shaped by the Contemporary Mokuhanga tradition in Japanese woodblock printmaking. Contemporary Mokuhanga: Contemporary mokuhanga (literally "wood-block print") encompasses artists working from approximately 1970 to the present who continue or reinvent traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques.
Vanessa Hall-Patch's prints frequently feature architecture.
Vanessa Hall-Patch is a contemporary printmaker contributing to the ongoing tradition of woodblock printing. Contemporary prints offer collectors an affordable entry point into Japanese printmaking. Prices range from $100 for smaller works to $1,500 for major compositions. Most prints sell in the $200–$600 range. The contemporary printmaking scene is active and international, with artists exhibiting at galleries, art fairs, and print biennials worldwide.
