Andrew Patterson is a Toronto-based artist and designer, born in TO but spending his childhood in small-town Ontario. He found himself set apart as a visible minority but lucky enough to have an incredible amount of love and support to guide him and nurture his creative spirit. Heavily drawn to skate, hip hop, and punk culture as well as anything from Japan, he attended school at Sheridan College where he attained a BAA in Illustration and Animation respectively. Since graduating in '09, he's been working in Toronto with his two partners at their branding & design agency Wysp by day, and on his personal artwork the rest of the time. His personal practice explores the topic of identity, both divorced from race and in light of mainstream culture's reliance on connecting the two. Andrew's current focus is largely on mixed race identity and the unique perspective it presents. He works mostly with acrylic, ink, and spraypaint, trying to communicate these ideas through contemporary portraiture mashed together with abstractions and symbolic geometry. His hope is to confront people of all backgrounds with the reality that people are more than just one thing, to encourage others to move beyond reductive labelling and restrictive categorization, and to seek out commonalities and unity in new ways.