Pat Martin Bates

CARFAC copyright; Pat Martin Bates was born in Saint John, New Brunswick. She graduated from the AcadÚmie Royale des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, and continued her postgraduate studies at the Institut National SupÚrieur des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp, the Sorbonne in Paris, and the Pratt Graphic Centre in New York. By the late 1950s, her mystical, contemplative work made a break from the traditional boundaries of printmaking and earned her national and international recognition. In 1962, Bates moved to Victoria, and two years later Colin Graham invited her to exhibit her elegant black and white, heavily embossed prints at the Gallery. He gave her a full retrospective in 1971. Her knowledge and understanding of her medium allowed for experimentation, moving to the realm of multi-media. She pioneered the use of light boxes to illuminate delicate arabesque pin points of light creating her unique cosmology. Anne Hurtig, who curated Martin Bates's 2005 solo show Destinations, Navigation, Illuminations notes, "The lightbox works starting in the 60s were marvelously innovative precursors that anticipated by several years the now familiar backlit advertising form." Pat Martin Bates received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Victoria in 1994, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts in 2008. Over the years she has received many other distinctive awards in Canada and abroad.