Alex Mitchell: Wood, Fabric, and Mixed Media Sculptures and Paintings

Artist Statement, Biography, and Résumé

ARTIST STATEMENT (2009-2011)
Perfection only exists in the mind.

The outcome, the work, exists only as proof of my efforts. It is in my striving -in spite of knowing that perfection is unattainable- that I make meaning and find purpose.

Monster-Making: A Process of Self-Discovery

Through my “Me-Monsters” I have tried to discover my true self underneath my egocentric persona. This required taking off the layers of outworn ideas of my identity and delving deeper. I dissected my ego and came up with a ridiculous, obnoxious, funny-looking monster for each part.
The first step to bring to life each monster was creating large marionette sculptures. Once I got all the monsters physically manifested in cardboard, I turned to painting to figure out how I might finish each one. Three different series of paintings helped me determine how each monster looks, what kind of land it lives in, and how each one behaves.
In addition, to develop the personalities of my “Me-Monsters,” I turned to creating each monster as a small hand puppet.

As this monster-making process reaches its final stage, I am working in miniature and dealing with the idea of transformation. I say goodbye to my “Me-Monsters” and let go of old familiar ways of thinking in order to accept all of myself and trust in life.

ARTIST STATEMENT (2008)
What is it about our culture that we yearn for a Beaver Cleaver-Bewitched-Brady Bunch-life? Haven’t we all learned that nothing is as perfect as it seems? Isn’t there always something dark lurking around the corner or inside our closets?

El Happy Mundo - Or is it?

“El Happy Mundo” is a body of work that playfully places us between these two opposing ideas of picture-perfectness and lurking darkness.

Made up of two parts, the first introduces us to “The Kitties,” fabric wall sculptures who represent beauty and innocence, and are the colorful inhabitants of an imaginary world called “La-La Land.” This world is brought to life through a large wall hanging that serves as a map with each “Kitty” dedicated to a particular region.
The second part includes the sculpture “Free Cake,” the wall sculpture “Somewhere,” and the “Knock-Knock Series” pedestal sculptures. This grouping of works show us the darker side behind our facades, actions, and intentions.

By tackling my personal life questions with humor and re-inventing my world through my art, I allow myself to live the questions for the moment, inviting others to do the same.

BIOGRAPHY
Alex Mitchell's artwork has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in galleries in the United States and in Europe, including the Pedro Serrenho Gallery in Lisbon, the Rita Castellote Gallery in Madrid, the Monkdogz Urban Art gallery in New York City, the Solomon Fine Art gallery in Seattle, and the Hang gallery in San Francisco.

In addition, her work is in public and private collections including those of the Portuguese museum Museu de Angra do Heroísmo Arte Contemporânea on the island of Terceira, Azores, and the De Mora-Granados Family Collection in Madrid, Spain.

She has been an Artist in Residence at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, and also participated in the Artist Studio at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, both honors in San Francisco.

Alex Mitchell was born in LaGrange, Illinois, in 1969. She received her BS in Interior Design from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio. After working for several architecture firms as a designer, she went into the theater to work as a properties artisan for the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and the California Shakespeare Festival in Berkeley, before devoting herself full-time to her art. She currently lives and works in Madrid, Spain.

EXCERPTS FROM PUBLICATIONS
"Her way of approaching life and art is intimate and playful. The aesthetic she creates is absolutely unique and original, and deliciously immune to the tendencies inside the world of contemporary artistic creation. Alex treads the paths of her own making. The softness of the childish aesthetics in her work is broken and hardened by the sarcastic humour that tints the work."

Laila Escartín Hamarinen, El Happy Mundo Catalog, Galería Rita Castellote, Madrid, Spain (September 2008).

"Alex Mitchell, an American who employs a deceptively innocent faux-naif style to deal with loneliness, cruelty, shameful secrets, and other aspects of human vulnerability in 3-D wall assemblages somewhere between folk art, the box constructions of Joseph Cornell, and the fanciful little worlds of Paul Klee."

Ed McCormack, "Monkdogz Fires a Bold Opening Volley Across the
Bow of the New Season," Gallery & Studio (Vol.10, No.1 - September/October 2007).

"Her sense of play characterizes the irreverent and imaginative attitude of some contemporary artists that have drawn attention of curators and art intellectuals, and whose works presented collectively constitute an important reworking of the 'seriousness' of the art object and its liberation from a certain movement or school of thought."

Tatiana Macedo, Welcome to the Hidden Life Catalog, Galeria Pedro Serrenho, Lisbon, Portugal (April 2005).

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2009
ME-MONSTERS, Galeria Pedro Serrenho - Lisbon, Portugal.

2008
EL HAPPY MUNDO, Galería Rita Castellote - Madrid, Spain.

2007
WHERE IS MY MIND?, Galeria Pedro Serrenho - Lisbon, Portugal.

2006
MISERY LOVES COMPANY, Galería Rafael Pérez Hernando - Madrid, Spain.

2005
WELCOME TO THE HIDDEN LIFE, Galeria Pedro Serrenho - Lisbon, Portugal.

2004
WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD WOLF?, Galeria Pedro Serrenho - Oporto, Portugal.
CUENTACUENTOS, Galería La Factoría del Perro Verde - Madrid, Spain.

2003
DREAM, Solomon Fine Art - Seattle, WA, USA.

2002
AMUSE, Hang - Palo Alto, CA, USA.
WONDER, Solomon Fine Art - Seattle, WA, USA.

2001
PICTOGRAMS, Oakland Museum of California - Oakland, CA, USA.
MOSTLY STORIES, Hang - San Francisco, CA, USA.

1999
WORKS IN THE E AND F SERIES, Gensler Architects - San Francisco, CA, USA.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2008
ARTE LISBOA '08, Feira Intl. de Lisboa, Galeria Pedro Serrenho - Lisbon, Portugal.

2007
ARTE LISBOA '07, Feira Intl. de Lisboa, Galeria Pedro Serrenho - Lisbon, Portugal.
MORIDEN, Monkdogz Urban Art - New York, NY, USA.
COLECTIVA AO 8 MES, Galeria Pedro Serrenho - Lisbon, Portugal.

2006
ARTE LISBOA '06, Feira Intl. de Lisboa, Galeria Pedro Serrenho - Lisbon, Portugal.

2005
ARTE LISBOA '05, Feira Intl. de Lisboa, Galeria Pedro Serrenho - Lisbon, Portugal.

2004
ARTE LISBOA '04, Feira Intl. de Lisboa, Galeria Pedro Serrenho - Lisbon, Portugal.
LIGHTEN UP, Solomon Fine Art - Seattle, WA, USA.
P.K. 630,7: MADRID-LISBOA, Galeria Pedro Serrenho - Lisbon, Portugal.

2003
DOS AÑOS, DOS CONTINENTES, Galería La Factoría del Perro Verde - Madrid, Spain.
VIVID, Solomon Fine Art - Seattle, WA, USA.
29/3, Galería Los 29 Enchufes - Madrid, Spain.

2002
TOTEM, Galería La Factoría del Perro Verde - Madrid, Spain.
COLORS OF WHITE, Hang - San Francisco, CA, USA.

2001
WINTER WALLS: A Collection of Small Works, Hang - San Francisco, CA, USA.
SAN FRANCISCO OPEN STUDIOS, SomARTS Gallery - San Francisco, CA, USA.
RED, Junius Productions for the Arts - San Francisco, CA, USA.
ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW, Hang - San Francisco, CA, USA.

2000
SAN FRANCISCO OPEN STUDIOS, SomARTS Gallery - San Francisco, CA, USA.
5 @ EYELEVEL, Rizzoli Gallery - San Francisco, CA, USA.
DYADS AND TRIADS, Hang - San Francisco, CA, USA.

1999
SAN FRANCISCO OPEN STUDIOS, SomARTS Gallery - San Francisco, CA, USA.

1998
SAN FRANCISCO OPEN STUDIOS, Live Art Gallery - San Francisco, CA, USA.
SAN FRANCISCO OPEN STUDIOS, SomARTS Gallery - San Francisco, CA, USA.

COLLECTIONS
MAH - Museu de Angra do Heroísmo Arte Contemporânea - Ilha Terceira, Açores, Portugal.

De Mora-Granados Family Collection - Madrid, Spain.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
“La Originalidad de Alex Mitchell,” www.album-online.com (April 2011).

Maximina Bescós, "Me-Monsters," MU (Nº84 - December 2009).

Laila Escartín Hamarinen, El Happy Mundo Catalog, Galería Rita Castellote, Madrid, Spain (September 2008).

Where Is My Mind? Catalog, Galeria Pedro Serrenho, Lisbon, Portugal (December 2007).

Arte Lisboa Contemporary Art Fair Catalog, FIL_Feira Internacional de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal (November 2007).

Ed McCormack, "Monkdogz Fires a Bold Opening Volley Across the
Bow of the New Season," Gallery & Studio (Vol.10, No.1 - September/October 2007).

Laila Escartín Hamarinen, "Desde Las Fuentes Más Intocadas y Primarias del Ser," MU, cover (Nº57 - May 2007).

Laila Escartín Hamarinen, "Alex Mitchell, Una Americana en Madrid," MU (Nº47 - June 2006).

"Juguetes Quitapenas," Salir Salir (March 2006).

Paula R. Avendaño, "Muñecos Para Mayores," El Magazine, El Mundo (January 29, 2006).

Tatiana Macedo, Welcome to the Hidden Life Catalog, Galeria Pedro Serrenho, Lisbon, Portugal (April 2005).

María Castellví, "Alex Mitchell," Artes Plásticas (Nº82 - Segunda Época, 2004).

Augusto Carvacho, Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Catalog, Galeria Pedro Serrenho, Lisbon, Portugal (October 2004).

P.K. 630,7: Madrid-Lisboa Catalog, Galeria Pedro Serrenho, Lisbon, Portugal (June 2004).

"Escultura. Alex Mitchell," Guía De Madrid, ABC (Nº229 - Jan.30-Feb.5, 2004).

Robyn Israel, "Hanging Tough," Palo Alto Weekly (September 7, 2001).

Red Catalog, Junius Productions for the Arts, San Francisco, CA (September 2001).

Anne Crump, "Not in Search of Perfection," San Francisco Examiner (June 8, 2001).

AWARDS
Artist in Residence. California Palace of the Legion of Honor - San Francisco, CA, USA, 2002.

Artist Studio. M.H. de Young Memorial Museum - San Francisco, CA, USA, 2000.

EDUCATION
BS in Interior Design, University of Cincinnati - Cincinnati, OH, USA, 1994.