Clayton Patterson

Clayton Patterson (born October 9, 1948) is a Canadian-born artist, photographer, videographer and folk historian.

The NO!Art movement was founded by the late Boris Lurie, Stanley Fisher and Sam Goodman at March gallery, in New York in 1960.

Patterson has worked in a variety of mediums including etching, drawing, sculpture, lithography and photogravure.

Though technically trained as an artist, Patterson's sculpture style is more akin to so-called outsider or folk art, often incorporating found objects, vibrantly painted and collaged in elaborate vitrines and decorated frames.

His painting and drawing is heavily informed and influenced by tattoo and graffiti culture.

Some of his large scale murals have appeared throughout the Lower East Side.

In 1972 he began living and collaborating with artist Elsa Rensaa; though never married, they have remained lifelong partners.

Elsa was born in Norway and raised in Edmonton, Canada.

Seeking a more experimental and avant garde art scene, Patterson and Rensaa left Canada and took up residence in lower Manhattan.

In 1972, Rensaa gave Patterson his first camera and in 1980 he began photographing life in the Lower East Side of New York City.

Since moving to New York City in 1979, his work has focused almost exclusively on documenting the art, life and times of the Lower East Side in Manhattan.

Before moving to New York City in 1979, Clayton Patterson studied art at Alberta College of Art, University of Calgary, University of Alberta (Edmonton) and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University.

He taught printmaking at University of Alberta, etching at NSCAD, and high school art at Memorial Composite High School in Stony Plain, Alberta.

He also worked for other artists as a freelance lithographer and print maker.

From 1980-1982, Patterson's work was shown in a number of downtown galleries.

As Patterson grew disenchanted with the SoHo art world, he distanced himself from the traditional gallery scene and moved deeper into the underground scene of Lower East Side.

In 1983, Patterson and Rensaa bought a two-story former sewing factory and storefront at 161 Essex Street.

In 1985, Patterson began photographing kids from the neighborhood in front of his front door.

Over the years, he has taken hundreds of photos, and displaying them on his "Hall of Fame" in his storefront window.

The bottom floor paid the mortgage, and in 1986 he converted the small storefront into an art gallery and

Clayton Cap store.

From 1986 to 2003, they showcased a variety of New York artists, writers, neighborhood personalities including Quentin Crisp, Dash Snow, Angel "LA2" Ortiz, Boris Lurie, tattoo artist Spider Webb, Genesis P-Orridge, Peter Missing, Mary Beach, Taylor Mead, Agathe Snow, Manwoman, Swoon, Herbert Huncke and Elsa Rensaa.

In 1986, Patterson and Rensaa began designing and fabricating custom baseball hats which they sold in the storefront at 161 Essex which they branded as Clayton Hats.

The idea to make custom hats came from Clayton instructing Ben Booksinger, a cap maker on Avenue A, to embroider around the cap - off the peak.

Clayton realized Ben could make a drawing on his old fashioned embroidery machine when he saw Ben make a copy of a Savage Skull Patch and duplicated it as an embroidered patch.

Clayton got Booksinger to embroider Clayton designs on the front and on the sides of the cap.

Thus the birth of the Clayton cap- the first designer branded baseball cap.

The Clayton cap was the first baseball cap to have the embroidery all around the cap, and had the first signature and label on the outside of the cap.

An embroidered signature on a repeated design, and a hand signed label for the custom one-of-a-kind designed caps.

As Booksinger gradually retired from manufacturing, Patterson and Rensaa took up the business of embroidering their own designs on hand made hats with a 100-year-old Bonis embroidery machine.

The hats, designed by Patterson and made by Rensaa, were immediately popular with artists and were picked up by Elle and GQ.

The GQ article by Richard Merkin, named Clayton Hats as one of the two best baseball hats made in America.

Some of Clayton Hats' notable customers included artists Jim Dine and David Hockney, actor Matt Dillon, directors Gus Van Sant and Rob Reiner, the Pet Shop Boys, and Mick Jagger, for whom they designed a custom jacket back piece.

In 1986 Patterson and Ari Roussimoff created the Tattoo Society of New York with the assistance of Elsa Rensaa.

For the first 10 years of the convention, Rensaa, who had tattooed at 161 Essex since 1986 (retired), designed and printed the invitation cards and posters.

Roussimoff left the Society in 1989, and its leadership was carried on by Patterson and Rensaa.

In 1997, Wes Wood, L.E.S. City Councilwoman Kathryn Freed, and Patterson worked successfully to make tattooing once again legal in NYC.

After tattooing was made legal in 1997, Steve Bonge, Wes Wood, Butch Garcia became the founders and owners of the NYC International Tattoo Convention, held in the historic Roseland Ballroom; from the start, Patterson was hired as an organizer and manager.

Since 1999, Patterson and Dietmar Kirves have led NO!art.

In 2015, Mitch Corber created a short documentary video called Ludlow Street with Clayton that features Clayton Patterson walking down the street, discussing its cultural demise due to gentrification.