ORIGINAL ARTWORKS

The name 1805 (Patrick Pantoliano) reaches back through the artist’s own bloodline to the year his family began its journey from Italy to America. It is less a signature but rather a reminder that craftsmanship and talent outlives generations.

Raised beneath the Colorado Rockies and surrounded by the quiet pace of wilderness, Patrick developed an early respect for tools that reward patience and punish haste. Those same principles now define every work that leaves his studio.

Leather has carried civilization on its back for thousands of years. It has armored warriors, saddled horses, bound ancient books and become the signature of the world’s finest automobiles. Yet few have mastered it as an art form.

1805 has.

Working exclusively by hand, Patrick transforms full-grain Italian leather using nothing more than steel blades. No lasers. No engraving machines. No shortcuts. Every mark is cut individually with a collection of precision knives, removing microscopic layers from the surface until light, shadow and texture emerge from the hide itself.

The process is unforgiving.

Unlike paint, graphite or ink, leather offers no second chances. Every cut is permanent. Every decision remains forever. That irreversibility is precisely what gives each piece its presence. The artwork is not applied to the leather—it is revealed from within it.

Collectors often struggle to explain their first reaction to his work. Leather carries a language of its own. It speaks simultaneously of luxury and survival. It is elevated, timeless and sensorial—the smell of a new car or a vintage bound book, the creaking of a saddle on the frontier, the sheen or softness of a perfectly worn garment. It is refined without becoming delicate, primal without losing elegance.

That contradiction is intentional.

Every piece created by 1805 exists at the intersection of precision and instinct—where sculpture meets brush stroke, craftsmanship meets obsession, and one of mankind’s oldest materials is transformed into contemporary fine art.

There are easier materials.

That is precisely why leather was chosen.

Individual works can take weeks to produce, he adds: “Each knife gives a different finish so I make sure all the knives are super clean before I start any project. Using leather evokes a sensation that many other materials do not. I notice that when people come to my studio or see my works for the first time in a gallery, there is a reaction. This reaction is instinctive; some see leather as a super luxury material used by brands like Hermes and Ferrari while others see it in a more rugged way associating it with anything from ancient warriors in battle to the outdoors for work gloves and tough boots, while some, simply think SEX! For me it’s all of those things, leather is tough, it’s sexy and it is luxury.”