Artist Garry Mitchell

Garry Mitchell - Artist Statement

Beneath my paintings’ surfaces, woven into a fabric of shapes, colors and erasures is a record of something that seems like meaning. The images are generated as a direct result of the process, derived from a chain of experiences and decisions that are part of the struggle for resolution. I find my paintings on the way to making something else, often not at all what I expected. I work by trial and error, with the faith that my painting can be both evocative and straightforward, conjuring up the world beyond its edges while seeming to tell nothing more than the story of its own making. The result depends on a dialogue between randomness and control, the intuitive and the systematic, the hidden and the obvious.

The paintings begin as parking lots for shapes on colored surfaces. As I locate images, they often become conflated, simplified, obscured or eliminated altogether. I generate the images with a low tech printing process that is hard to control completely. I make a shape on the palette and roll over that shape with printmaking brayers (of various sizes). Then I roll that shape on to the painting’s surface. The image I “print” is distorted in unpredictable ways. Over the life of a painting, I rework surfaces many times. I roll out a layer of paint, squeegee the surface flat and sometimes sand it down. Some things emerge out of the process, others are lost. Though I give up interesting images as I resolve a painting, these lost pieces are invariably just off the mark, somehow tangential to the final image. Ultimately I’m interested in the painting as an object that tells the story of this process.

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Education



	Garry Mitchell - Artist Statement Beneath my paintings’ surfaces, woven into a fabric of shapes, colors and erasures is a record of something that seems like meaning. The images are generated as a direct result of the process, derived from a chain of experiences and decisions that are part of the struggle for resolution. I find my paintings on the way to making something else, often not at all what I expected. I work by trial and error, with the faith that my painting can be both evocative and straightforward, conjuring up the world beyond its edges while seeming to tell nothing more than the story of its own making. The result depends on a dialogue between randomness and control, the intuitive and the systematic, the hidden and the obvious. The paintings begin as parking lots for shapes on colored surfaces. As I locate images, they often become conflated, simplified, obscured or eliminated altogether. I generate the images with a low tech printing process that is hard to control completely. I make a shape on the palette and roll over that shape with printmaking brayers (of various sizes). Then I roll that shape on to the painting’s surface. The image I “print” is distorted in unpredictable ways. Over the life of a painting, I rework surfaces many times. I roll out a layer of paint, squeegee the surface flat and sometimes sand it down. Some things emerge out of the process, others are lost. Though I give up interesting images as I resolve a painting, these lost pieces are invariably just off the mark, somehow tangential to the final image. Ultimately I’m interested in the painting as an object that tells the story of this process. Resume Education 1982 M.F.A., Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY 1978 B.F.A., University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI Exhibitions Solo: 2005 Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME 2005 ICON Contemporary Art, Brunswick, ME 2003 ICON Contemporary Art, Brunswick, ME 2003 University of Maine-Farmington, Farmington, ME 2001 ICON Contemporary Art, Brunswick, ME 2000 Lake George Arts Project, Lake George, NY 1999 Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME 1999 Maine Center for Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME 1997 Takara Gallery, Houston, TX 1992 Albert Merola Gallery, Provincetown, MA 1991 Universal Fine Objects Gallery, Provincetown, MA 1990 Universal Fine Objects Gallery, Provincetown, MA 1989 Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA 1988 George Ciscle Gallery, Baltimore, MD 1988 Phoenix Gallery, Provincetown, MA 1986 Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA 1986 George Ciscle Gallery, Baltimore, MD 1984 Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA Group: 2004 Biennial, Maine Center for Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME 2004 Gallery Artists, ICON Contemporary Art, Brunswick, ME 2003 Gallery Artists, ICON Contemporary Art, Brunswick, ME 2002 Yaddo Variations, The Drawing Center, New York, NY 2002 Biennial, Maine Center for Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME 2002 Former Fellows 1985-86 Exhibition, Fine Arts Work Center, 2002 Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA 2001 Gallery Artists, ICON Contemporary Art, Brunswick, ME 2001 Faculty Exhibit, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME 2001 New Talent, Richard Rosenberg Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 2000 Faculty Exhibit, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME 2000 Art Etc., AIDS Art Auction, Boston, MA 2000 Six Abstract Painters: Karen McCready Fine Art, New York, NY 2000 Yaddo Artists, Claudia Carr Gallery, New York, NY 2000 Friendships in Arcadia: Yaddo Artists, Art in General, New York, 2000 Friendships in Arcadia: Yaddo Artists, The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY 1999 New American Talent, Texas A&M Galleries, Commerce, TX 1999 New American Talent, Martin Museum of Art, Baylor University, Waco, TX 1999 Faculty Exhibit, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME 1998 Art Etc, AIDS Art Auction, Boston, MA 1998 Biennial, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, MA 1998 Artists Cornucopia 2, Yukiko Lunday Gallery, Houston, TX 1998 New American Talent, Blue Star Art Space, San Antonio, TX 1997 New American Talent, Texas Fine Art Association, Austin, TX 1997 Baltimore Collects, Villa Julie College, Baltimore, MD 1997 Faculty Exhibit, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME 1996 Four Artists: Harbor Gallery, U-Mass-Boston, Boston, MA 1995 Strictly Painting, McLean Project for the Arts, McLean, VA 1995 Now and Then: Abstract Painting - 1945-1995, Tucson Museum of Art, AZ 1995 Artists-in-Residence Biennial, School 33 Art Center, Baltimore, MD 1995 Group Show, Universal Fine Objects Gallery, Provincetown, MA 1994 Recent Acquisitions; Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ 1994 Americans in Japan, Gallery Viva, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, JAPAN 1994 Annual Juried Exhibition, School 33 Art Center, Baltimore, MD 1994 Group Show, Universal Fine Objects Gallery, Provincetown, MA 1993 Biennial Studio Artists Exhibition, School 33 Art Center, Baltimore, MD 1993 Tucson Collects, Davis Gallery, Tucson, AZ 1993 Group Show, Universal Fine Objects Gallery, Provincetown, MA 1992 Hidden Spaces, Davis Gallery, Tucson, AZ 1991 American Artists in Japan, Zephyrus Contemporary Art, Japan, Tokyo 1991 Tokyo International Art Exposition, JAPAN 1990 Visual Aids, Museum for Contemporary Arts, Baltimore, MD 1989 Contemporary Provincetown, Provincetown Art Assoc and Museum, MA 1989 Fellows of the Fine Arts Center in Provincetown, Twining Gallery, NYC 1988 Drawing: Artists Fellowship Program, Artists Foundation, Boston, MA 1987 Group Show, East End Gallery, Provincetown, MA 1987 New Talent, Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA 1986 Invitational, Damon Brandt Gallery, New York City, NY 1986 Young Artists, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, MA 1986 Invitational, East End Gallery, Provincetown, MA 1986 Fellows of the Fine Arts Work Center, Wheeler Gallery, Providence, RI 1985 Recent Acquisitions, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, MA 1985 Group Show, Washburn Gallery, New York City, NY Awards and Fellowships 1997 Juror’s Award, New American Talent, Texas Fine Art Association- Robert Storr, juror. 1995 Maryland State Arts Council, Individual Artists Grant 1995 Esteban Vincente Endowed Fellowship, Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY 1993 Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY, Fellowship 1992 Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY, Fellowship 1991 Arizona Commissions on the Arts, Artists' Grant 1991 Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY, Fellowship 1985 Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA, Fellowship 1984 Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA, Fellowship 1984 Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY, Fellowship 1983 The Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz, NY, Artist-in-Residence 1983 The Helena Wurlitzer Foundation, Taos, NM, Grant 1983 Edward Albee Foundation, New York City, NY, Artist-in-Residence 1982 The MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH, Fellowship Bibliography 2004 New American Painting, Winter issue 2003 Sarah Morneau, “Alluding to Notation,” Portland Phoenix, 4/18/03 2003 Cover, Amartya Sen, Freedom and Justice (Harvard Univ Press) 2003 Cover, Micahel Tomasella, Constructing a Language (Harvard Univ Press) 2001 Philip Isaacson, “Tension Intensifies Impact of Mitchell’s Colorful Paintings,” Maine Sunday Telegram, 3/18/2001 2001 Autumn Phillips, “How Much is Art a Mirror of the Artist?” Brunswick Times Record, 3/1/2001 2001 New American Painting, Winter issue 2000 “Six Abstract Painters,” Karen McCready Fine Art, The New York Times 2000 Cover, Ploughshares Magazine, Fall 2000 2000 “Yaddo’s Friendships in Arcadia,” Glen Falls Journal 1998 Portland Museum of Art Biennial, Catalog 1998 Arts Etc, Annual AIDS Benefit Catalog 1998 Robert Storr, “Essay on the New American Talent,” Arts News 1997 Robert Storr, New American Talent 13, Catalog 1997 “New American Talent Award Recipients Chosen,” New Art Quarterly 1997 Suzanne Akhtar, “Paintings Are In Again,” Star Telegram, Fort Worth, TX 1995 Mike Guilliano, “Biennial--School 33,” Baltimore City Paper 1995 John Dorsey, “Biennial--School 33,” Baltimore Sun 1994 Mike Guilliano, "Spring Juried Show," Baltimore City Paper 1994 Alice Yang, Curator, Alternative Museum, New York, “Essay, Annual Juried Exhibition,” Catalog, School 33 Art Center, Baltimore, MD 1993 Fine Arts Work Center: 25th Anniversary, Catalog 1993 Mike Guilliano, "Happily, School 33 Artists Emerge," Baltimore Sun 1992 "Arizona Illustrated," KUAT-TV, Tucson, Interview 1992 Margaret Regan, "Peculiarly American," Tucson Weekly 1990 Cindy Nickerson, "Abstract Paintings in Provincetown," Cape Cod Times 1990 Ann Wilson Lloyd, "Garry Mitchell Paints," Cape Cod Art and Antiques 1989 Artist's Statement and Reproduction, Provincetown Arts, V. 3 1989 Contemporary Provincetown, Provincetown Art Assoc and Museum, Catalog 1988 John Dorsey, "Portrait of an Artist in Transition," Baltimore Sun 1987 “New Talent at Alpha Gallery," The Boston Globe 1986 "Paintings: Garry Mitchell," Baltimore News American 1986 Visual Fellows from the Fine Arts Work Center, Catalog 1985 Visual Fellows from the Fine Arts Work Center, Catalog 1985 Charles Guilliano, "Recent Acquisitions: Provincetown Art Association,” Art New England





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