Masters (MA): Fine Art
Oil Paint
130.0 x 90.0 cm
2022
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About this artwork
The title of this painting is from an Emily Dickinson poem, the great American poet. How do you make an image out of an abstract thought or out of poetry? I wanted to make an image that evokes hope in a universal sense, coming out of darkness. This painting was made on the Mark Rothko Art Residency at the Mark Rothko Art Centre in his home town of Daugavpils, Latvia. It was a fully-funded residency, selected by the panel of the Mark Rothko Memorial Trust (Rebecca Salter, current President of the Royal Academy of Art, London, Timothy Marlow, Managing Director of the Design Museum, curator, writer and presenter, Laura Culpan, Director of Artwise Curators and Paul Huxley, artist and Royal Academician). This was in August 2022 and completed in my studio in East London in 2023. This painting was recently exhibited in the institutional exhibition, ‘What This Awl Means’ (the LaLa International Art Collective and Guests) at the Künstlerhaus, Bregenz, Austria from October 6th-November 19th, 2023.
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Artwork History
Dec 01, 2023
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About the artist
Vanessa Mitter is a painter and a performance artist, who lives and works in London. She graduated with a BA Honours Degree in Fine Art: Painting from Central Saint Martins, London, having completed her Foundation studies in Art and Design at Kingston University, London. She went on to complete a Postgraduate Diploma and a Masters Degree in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art, London. In her paintings and performances, Vanessa Mitter is interested in interrogating the history, particularly, of Expressionist painting and of the gesture. The making is very physical. The canvas is moved around, laid on the floor, then the wall, often remade or scored over, obliterated and then painted over again. Often, paintings are buried underneath other paintings. There is a narrative being referenced, but it is often hidden and autobiographical. Mitter uses layers of paint and collage, overlaid then with pen and oil stick. The making is instinctive and accident driven, often teetering on the edge. This tightrope is important. The painting has its own life, leads the way. Mitter views this as a process of alchemy; a transformative process. Alice Butler (Frieze Writer’s Prize Winner, 2012) writes that: ‘In Vanessa Mitter’s paintings, the personal is treated as a pliant material, a source of affect and investigation, but also of fiction and performance. Collage, paint and pigment find a way on to the canvas in ephemeral expressive gestures. There is an abject narrative at play – of childbirth, loss, fertility – but it is a narrative that wanders in and around the artifice of the material’ and ‘The textural ways in which Mitter appropriates her own work, working and re-working the surface, with the addition of a swathe of fabric, a ripped sheet of paper, or an expressive gesture of paint, becomes a signifier of the passing of time’. Website: www.vanessamitter.com Instagram: @vanessamitter
Curriculum Vitae
Born in 1982 in London. Currently residing in London.
Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art The Painting Game at K Projects, Berlin Life Was Never Meant To Be This Way, Museu de Soller, Mallorca, Spain Unquiet Brides at Unit G Gallery, London I Am A Beautiful Monster at Arthouse1 Gallery, London (duo exhibition) The Painting Game at K Projects, Berlin Life Was Never Meant To Be This Way, Museu de Soller, Mallorca, Spain Unquiet Brides at Unit G Gallery, London I Am A Beautiful Monster at Arthouse1 Gallery, London (duo exhibition) The 2017 Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize catalogue, Piano Nobile Gallery Frivolous Convulsions Arts Council funded catalogue, Turf Projects in major library collections; including Chelsea College UAL and The British Library etc Exhibition catalogue for ‘What This Awl Means: The LaLa International Art Collective and Guests’ at the Künstlerhaus, Bregenz, Austria Contemporary Narratives Part Two: London Paint Club exhibition catalogue Art Maze Magazine feature The Lore of the Land exhibition catalogue Art on a Postcard for International Women’s Day, postcard box set/catalogue Life Was Never Meant To Be This Way, solo exhibition catalogue Mother Art Prize 2018 exhibition catalogue You Are Here exhibition catalogue Review of ‘Objects of Desire’ exhibition: https://tomoutblog.wordpress.com/2019/11/28/agitation-objects-of-desire-asc-studios/ De Kooning, De Kooning, De Kooning, review in Frieze Magazine of exhibition at David Risley Gallery, Copenhagen: https://www.frieze.com/article/de-kooning-de-kooning-de-kooning Nicola Ruben Montini in conversation with Vanessa Mitter for Positive Magazine: https://www.positive-magazine.com/nicola-ruben-montini-in-conversation-with-vanessa-mitter/ 5 Reasons, Art on a Postcard: https://fadmagazine.com/2021/11/09/5-reasons-why-art-on-a-postcard-is-the-charity-auction-not-to-miss/ Review of ‘Objects of Desire’ exhibition by art critic, Paul Carey-Kent, ‘Paul’s Art World’ Death Animated, review of ‘Frivolous Convulsions’ exhibition at Turf Projects: https://tomoutblog.wordpress.com/2018/01/19/death-animated-frivolous-convulsions-turf-projects/ The Smoke, review of exhibition by Tom Carrao at: https://tomoutblog.wordpress.com https://hyperallergic.com/690853/art-on-a-postcard-winter-auction-2021/ Croydonist: Review of ‘Frivolous Convulsions’ exhibition at Turf Projects The Mark Rothko Memorial Trust. I was awarded a fully funded art residency to develop my work for a month from 31/7/22-30/8/22 at the Mark Rothko Art Centre, Latvia. The Red Mansion Foundation Art Prize shortlist Waverton Art Prize in association with Boisdale - longlisted by Paint Talk curator and acclaimed artist, Stuart Pearson Wright GAM - Gilbert de Botton Art Prize shortlist Continued…The Mark Rothko Memorial Trust Artist-in-Residence biennial award was selected by: Rebecca Salter RA (President of the Royal Academy of Arts, London), Tim Marlow (CEO of the Design Museum) Longlisted for Jackson’s Painting Prize, 2023 Barbican Arts Group Trust Artworks Open shortlist and exhibition Hackney Wicked Art Prize - joint winner during the Arts Council funded Hackney Wicked Open Studios, East London 100 Painters of Tomorrow, Beers Gallery, London longlist The Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize shortlist and exhibition, Kings Place, London with Piano Nobile Gallery Mother Art Prize shortlist, exhibition and catalogue, selected by Procreate Project, Engage Artist Platform and Mother Studios co-founders, Dyana Gravina and Paola Lucente. Mother Art Prize…continued.. selected and curated by: Elizabeth Nielson (Director, Zabludowicz Collection), Laura Smith (curator, Whitechapel Art Gallery) and Marcelle Joseph (curator and collector). (Selection panel continued), Paul Huxley RA and Laura Culpan (Director of Artwise Curators) Jackson’s Painting Prize - shortlist (two paintings selected by the panel) The Mark Rothko Memorial Trust Artist-in-Residence Award Funding from the Austrian government via the Künstlerhaus, Bregenz for the exhibition, catalogue, loaning of artworks from the Landesmuseum, Bregenz, tour and talk: ‘Whar This Awl Means’. Turf Projects Arts Council funding for exhibition and catalogue, ‘Frivolous Convulsions’ Freelands Foundation grant
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