Killer Whale by Patrick Amos, Nuu-Chah-Nulth

Killer Whale, 2006
by Patrick Amos
Nuu-Chah-Nulth First Nation
framed Silkscreen print
edition 248/299
19" high x 18" wide x 1" deep

Patrick Amos was born in 1957 on Nootka Island, located on the west coast of Vancouver Island into the Mowachaht Band, one of fourteen member tribes of the Nuu Chah Nulth Nation. 

Since 1976 Patrick has been designing limited edition prints. In 1979 he began carving wood apprenticing with Tony Hunt Sr. at the Art of the Raven gallery in Victoria, B.C. Later, he apprenticed with Tim Paul at the Royal B.C. museum carving shed in Victoria, where he assisted with a few totem pole projects.

In 1989/90 he assisted Tim Paul to carve a 36 foot Hesquiaht totem pole for the Mauri people of New Zealand.

Patrick Amos began selling his work through the Royal B.C. museum shop, in Victoria in 1976. He had his first solo exhibition in 1991 at the gallery Indigena, in Stratford, Ontario; then in 1992 he he exhibited at the Native Heritage Centre, in Duncan, B.C. and the Gallery of Tribal Arts in Vancouver B.C. The Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria, B.C. has several paintings and prints of Patrick’s in their permanent collection.

Increasingly Patrick Amos is being commissioned for larger works and he now takes on apprentices of his own to assist with these projects.

His commissions include a 10 foot X 30 foot mural for the Mount Klitsa, Junior Secondary School, in Port Alberni, B.C. which was completed in 1995. Then in 1997 he completed a 14 foot totem pole for the Alberni District Secondary School in Port Alberni, a 8 foot X 20 foot painted mural for the new Ha-Ho-Payuk elementary school on the TseShaht Reserve in Port Alberni B.C., and a 7 foot totem pole for the Gallery Indegena, in Stratford, Ontario.

Patrick is active in his community, giving carving demonstrations at various schools throughout the Port Alberni school district each year, and since 1991 he has taught a native art class at the Du-Quaht Art School in Ucluelet, B.C.