An exploration of light and colour

Max Patté is a contemporary multimedia artist known for his vivid interplay of light, colour, and form. Educated at the Wimbledon School of Art in London and elected an Associate of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 2008, Max has developed a practice that spans sculpture, painting, and immersive light art.

His studio work is driven by a fascination with the liminal spaces where light and colour meet — the threshold where mood shifts and perception of space changes. “I’ve always been captivated by that moment of transition, when light shifts and suddenly a space feels entirely different. That’s where the magic happens,” Max says.

He works across traditional sculptural mediums such as cast iron and bronze, but equally embraces digital and technological toolsets, including CNC milling, 3D scanning, digital programs, and apps, which are all part of his working vocabulary. “I don’t see a divide between traditional and digital tools,” he explains. “They’re all ways of making, and each has its own strengths in helping me express an idea.”

Some of Max’s most iconic works have become landmarks in New Zealand. Solace in the Wind, a figure cast in iron and placed on the Wellington waterfront, leans into wind and weather in a gesture of human vulnerability and connection to place. “That piece was about surrender,” Max reflects. “Letting go, being present, and embracing the elements, literally and emotionally.”

Max’s Infinity Works series employs illuminated spheres and wall works in which colour, tone, saturation, and negative space co-operate to affect not just what is seen, but how one feels in a space. “These works aren’t just visual, they’re emotional landscapes,” Max explains. “They change the way a room feels, how your body feels inside that room.”

The pieces are neither purely decorative nor merely technical: they alter environments, shifting the viewer’s relationship to the space in which the artwork lives.

Max’s art is available through Lightworx Gallery by ArtBay in Queenstown. Lightworx represents both his sculptures and light works, offering collectors and visitors access to iconic outdoor pieces and his more experimental, luminous creations.

Beyond individual works, what makes his practice compelling is how he merges the visceral with the conceptual. He draws on natural phenomena, such as how daylight moves across surfaces or how sky colours shift, and filters this through both traditional craft and modern fabrication.

The result is work that is grounded yet ethereal. “Nature is still the biggest inspiration,” Max says. “The sky, the sea, the way light hits a surface, is all endlessly inspiring. I just try to respond to it in my own way.”

Contact details:

Max Patté
info@maxpatte.com
www.maxpatte.com