John Mitchell | Dreams
October 13 – November 12, 2022
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 13, 6-8pm
Planthouse Gallery is pleased to open Dreams, an exhibition of paintings and prints by John Mitchell, on October 13th. This will be the artist's second solo exhibition with the gallery. The opening reception for the artist will be held on October 13th, 6-8 pm.
Mitchell continues his steadfast commitment to portraiture within this exhibition, painting his friends, neighbors, and fellow artists through direct observation. “I am a people person,” says Mitchell in an interview with the artist Alix Bailey, published in conjunction with Dreams. “Within the context of our current time of political polarization, cancel culture, social media, smartphones, texting, speed dating, and online video communication—it feels good to slow way down and spend this kind of time in a room with another person for 3 to 6 hours per session, whether it be a one session painting or a more ambitious painting that can go on over months or even years.” Sessions repeat at a set time, week after week, for as long as it takes to complete the project. His method centers around the temporality of appearance and its relationship to time; his paintings reflect the time spent looking at and being with each person. Also on view are small etchings printed as intimate studies of the more significant works.
John Mitchell (b. 1971) was born in Illinois and now lives and works in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Mitchell received a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995 and an MFA from Yale University in 1999. His first one-person exhibitions in NYC were at Alexandre De Folin Gallery in 1999 and RIVA Gallery in 2003. Since then, Mitchell has been actively exhibiting in and out of New York City. In 2015, Mitchell was awarded an Art Symposium Residency at Austevoll Kunstforening, Austevoll, Norway; in 2016 attended the Emerson Landing Residency in Wye Mills, Maryland.
A 56-page four-color catalog accompanies the exhibition.
Read John Yau’s review of the exhibition on Hyperallergic here.
