donald mitchell

Born 1951, San Francisco, California
Has practiced at Creative Growth since 1986

Donald Mitchell has practiced at Creative Growth Art Center since 1986. Mitchell’s work began with dense abstract and cross-hatched fields of black lines or brush strokes that obliterated the paper and hid any trace of underlying image. Over time, Mitchell slowly uncovered the faces and forms buried in the darkness. His work then became populated by multiple figures that were autonomous or overlapping, and whose relationships became both dependent and independent of each other. These figures are consistently depicted with a large round head with simplified facial features on top of a thick body with peg-like arms and legs. Sometimes they are stacked so densely they resemble totems, and other times only a face rises to the surface in a field of dense line work. Mitchell’s most recent work maintains the foundation of these anonymous figures, but has returned to large scale abstraction with late-career artist’s skill. 

Mitchell’s work has been exhibited at Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne; Gavin Brown’s enterprise, Cavin Morris, Ricco Maresca, and Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco; Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley; Jennifer Lauren Gallery, London; and is included in the permanent collection of the Centre Pompidou and the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Donald Mitchell, nativo de San Francisco, ha practicado en Creative Growth Art Center desde 1986. El trabajo de Mitchell comenzó con densos campos abstractos y sombreados de líneas negras o pinceladas que borraban el papel y ocultaban cualquier rastro de imagen subyacente. Con el tiempo, Mitchell descubrió lentamente los rostros y las formas enterradas en la oscuridad. Su obra se pobló entonces de múltiples figuras, autónomas o sobrepuestas, y cuyas relaciones se volvieron tanto dependientes como independientes entre sí. Estas figuras se representan consistentemente con una gran cabeza redonda con rasgos faciales simplificados sobre un cuerpo grueso con brazos y piernas en forma de espigas. A veces se apilan tan densamente que parecen tótems, y otras veces solo una cara emerge a la superficie en un campo de líneas densas. El trabajo más reciente de Mitchell mantiene la base de estas figuras anónimas, pero ha vuelto a la abstracción a gran escala con la habilidad de un artista tardío.

El trabajo de Mitchell se ha exhibido en la Colección de l'Art Brut, Lausana; la empresa de Gavin Brown, Galería Cavin Morris, Ricco Maresca y Andrew Edlin, Nueva York; Centro Yerba Buena para las Artes y Galería Rena Bransten, San Francisco; Museo de Arte de Berkeley, Berkeley; Galería Jennifer Lauren, Londres; y está incluido en la colección permanente del Centro Pompidou y el Museo de Arte de Milwaukee.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2022
Outsider Art Fair, New York

2021
Outsider Art Fair, New York
4x8-bridges, online exhibition, 8-bridges
Vibrant, Nina Johnson Gallery, Miami
Can’t Beat California, Golestani Gallery, Düsseldorf

2020
Outsider Art Fair, New York
Monochromatic Minds, Jennifer Lauren Gallery, London
Inter-Avant-Garde, Roger Center for Fine Arts, Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln
Art Paris, online exhibition
Art Brut Global, Outsider Art Fair, online exhibition

2019
Outsider Art Fair, New York
Outsider Art Fair, Paris
CE x CG x NIAD, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco

2018
Outsider Art Fair, Paris
New Art Dealers Alliance Fair, New York
Outsider Art Fair, New York
D’Dessin Art Fair, Paris
Visual Oasis: Works from Creative Growth, Carson City

2017
D’Dessin Paris Contemporary Drawing Fair, Paris
Outsider Art Fair, New York,

2016
Duvel Moortgat Fund, MADmusée Liège, Belgium
New Art Dealers Alliance Fair, Miami
American Dream, Direct Art Gallery, Dusseldorf, Germany
Outsider Art Fair, Paris
Large Drawings, Home, 836M, San Francisco, CA
Casale Monferrato Castle, Italy
Art Fair Tokyo, Tokyo Art Osaka, Osaka
D’Dessin Paris Contemporary Drawing Fair, Paris

2015
Vis-à-vis, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, curated by Michael Mahalchick
Outsider Art Fair, New York
D’Dessin Paris Contemporary Drawing Fair, Paris
Art Fair Tokyo, Tokyo
Extra Celestial, Crosstown Art, Memphis

2014
Mental Contours III. – Lines of Force, Artinbox Gallery, Prague
Outsider Art Fair, Paris
Outsider Art Fair, New York
D’Dessin Paris Contemporary Drawing Fair, Paris

2013
Outsider Art Fair, New York
Creative Growth, Galerie Art Cru, Berlin
Creative Growth, Park Life Gallery, San Francisco
D’Dessin Paris Contemporary Drawing Fair, Paris
Almost Home, Diego Rivera Gallery (SFAI), San Francisco
Margins to Mainstream: Contemporary Artists with Disabilities, Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa
Outsider Artists, Oakland Museum of California at the Oakland International Airport, Oakland, curated by Philip Linhares

2012
Cutlog Art Fair, Paris
Outsider Art Fair, New York
Independent Art Fair, New York
Frieze Art Fair, New York
D’Dessin Paris Contemporary Drawing Fair, Paris
Creative Growth, Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, curated by Amie Scally
Inside Out, Galleri NordNorge, Harstad, Norway
Different and Special, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Korea
John Hiltunen +1, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, curated by Matthew Higgs

2011
Revealed, Galerie Drylewicz, Paris
New Art Dealers Association Fair, Miami
Insider/Outsider Art: Selections from Bay Area Collections, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek
Exhibition #4, Museum of Everything, London
McGuire Furniture, San Francisco and New York
Outsider Art Fair, New York
Manhattan House, New York

2010
Visions of Paradise, Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Sonoma
Georg Jensen, New York
Outsider Art Fair, New York
In The House, MadMusée, Belgium

2009
Galerie Giti Nourbakhsch, Berlin
Revealing the Human, Arts Project, Melbourne
Again and Again, Galerie Impaire, Paris
Outsider Art Fair, New York

2008
Intuit Show of Folk and Outsider Art, Chicago
Bienal de Arte Contemporaneo Funcacion Once, Madrid
Queens Nails Annex, San Francisco, curated by Julio Morales

2007
Jack Hanley Gallery, Los Angeles
ABCD, Paris
Observer Event, New York

2006
Jack Hanley Gallery, Los Angeles
Berenberg Gallery, Boston
Visionary Output: Work by Creative Growth Artists, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco
Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne
Armory Art Fair, New York
Outsider Art Fair, New York

2005
New Art Dealers Association Fair, Miami
Intuit Fair of Folk and Outsider Art
White Columns, New York
Leon Borensztein and His Friends: A Look At Creative Growth Artists and Their Work, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, curated by René de Guzman and Tom di Maria

2004
Outsider Art Fair, New York

2003
Lucky Tackle Gallery, Oakland

2002
Southern Exposure, San Francisco