John Patrick McKenzie

Born in the Philippines in 1962, John Patrick McKenzie migrated with his parents to the United States at the age of two. With autism spectrum disorder, he joined the Creativity Explored centre in San Francisco in 1989, where he was able to indulge his taste for deciphering and commenting on the media. On paper, he composes works of visual poetry based on the current events of icons of popular culture or politics, as if to help us decipher our information-saturated world. When he calligraphies his letters in dark ink - often black, or in pencil - he fills in all the loops. His creative process is based on a complex and mysterious repetitive sequencing.
His work is included in collections such as those of Tracy Chapman, Michael Stipe and the UC Berkeley Art Museum.