Alice Butler 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 lost childhood and drifting brides – but it is a narrative that wanders in and around the artifice of the material.'
Her paintings are both exuberantly high-octane in terms of colour, but mordant in terms of their conceptual approach. Endless layers of patterning, collage and gaudy colouring are deliberately extreme, to the point where the paintings, when viewed in the flesh, are almost too vivid, too excessive.
In her practice, Vanessa Mitter is also informed by Julia Kristeva's writing(s) concerning the abject in relation to ideas of the feminine. 'We may call it a border; abjection is above all ambiguity. Because, while releasing a hold, it does not radically cut off the subject from what threatens it - on the contrary, abjection acknowledges it to be in perpetual danger.' (Kristeva, Powers of Horror). In her paintings, there is a sense of threat; of beauty and innocence on the edge of collapse.
Vanessa Mitter makes performances which explore confrontation, antagonism and ritual. These performances also reflect on the history of action painting and performance art. They are visceral and physically challenging. In all of her practice, she is interested in the performative and the gestural and in how these elements relate to liminal space and ritual. She seeks to destabilize the audience, forcing them to question their surroundings and their accepted modes of thinking and behaving. She asks questions about gender (taking on male and ambiguous alter egos), history (the personas are sometimes from another time/era), the relationship between the viewer and the viewed or the performer and those who bear witness.
Education
Chelsea College of Art and Design 2008-2010
Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art, 2009
MA Fine Art, 2010
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
BA Honours Degree in Fine Art
Kingston University, Surrey
Btec Foundation in Art and Design
Selected Exhibitions
2018
Athina Art Fair, Athens
Ornamental Neon
Velvet Ropes
Lore of the Land
You Are Here
Frivolous Convulsions
2017
I Am A Beautiful Monster (two person show) The Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize
2016
Unquiet Brides (solo exhibition)
What You See
2015
And The Dark And The Dark
Strange Attraction
2014
Hackney Wicked Art Festival (Arts Council funded)
Beuys Keep Swinging
The Painting Game
2013
The True, The Beautiful, The Good
Hot-One-Hundred
2012
Collective (Frieze Week Exhibition)
FAD Office
FAD, If Only You Could See What
I've Seen with Your Eyes
2011
Forza Nuova
Trajector Art Fair
de Kooning, de Kooning, de Kooning
I Am Not Here To Entertain You
2010
Then I Remembered
Showroom
Enjoy Democracy Responsibly
Dillmann Kunstmarkt
Performance
Performance
Condensation
Und wieder lockt das Weib
Scapegoat Society
Your Higher Plane Awaits
Going Postal
2009
Police and Violence
Invisible Means of Support
Salon Series
One Night Stand
2008
Goon Island
2007
Life Was Never Meant To Be This Way
(solo exhibition)
Curating
2018
Frivolous Convulsions
2011
The Dandyism of Contempt
I Am Not Here To Entertain You
Prizes and Awards
Shortlisted - The Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize 2017
Joint winner - Hackney Wicked Art Prize, 2015
Longtlisted for 100 Painters of Tomorrow, Beers Lambert Gallery, 2013
Shortlisted for The Red Mansion Foundation Art Prize, 2011
Shortlisted for the GAM Gilbert de Botton Art Prize, 2010
Collections
Vanessa Mitter's work is held in private collections in Europe and America.
Selected Publications
2018
Ornamental Neon at ASC Gallery
Frivolous Convulsions
Cadaverous in Croydon (review of Friviolous Convulsions)
Death Animated: Frivolous Convulsions
Lore of the Land
You Are Here
2017
I Am A Beautiful Monster
2016
Unquiet Brides
2015
Strange Attraction
2012
Posi+tive Magazine
FAD Art
2011
Frieze Magazine
Politiken, Denmark
Kunste.NU, Denmark
Kunstkrittik, Denmark
Kunst & Kultur, Denmark
2010
Deck, Kunstmarkt issue
Sonnendeck art magazine
2009
Sonnendeck art magazine
2008
Life Was Never Meant To Be This Way
Bridget Riley House, Space, London
Landing Space, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London
K Projects, Berlin
Symposium, The Museum of Ethnography, Belgrade, Serbia
Schwartz Gallery, London
The Bear Pit, London (through Carter Presents)
Performance, The Other Art Fair, Ambika P3, London
Performance, The Other Art Fair, Ambika P3, London
Space 4828, Venice curated by Nicola Ruben
Montini
Brussels, through Carter Presents Gallery, London
David Risley Gallery, Copenhagen, curated by
Dexter Dalwood
Field Project Space, London
Carter Presents Gallery, London
Man Can Not Live by Bread Alone, London
Forman's Smokehouse Gallery, London
Art Fair, Stuttgart, Germany
The Surreal House, Barbican Art Gallery, London
Flat-Time House, London
Hanbury Hall, Spitalfields, London
Galerie Deck, Stuttgart, Germany
Performance, Guest Projects, London
Chelsea College of Art and Design, London
Institute of Contemporary Art, London
Alex Michon reviews 'a performance of the feminine' painting show by imagining that the artists are all members of a girl band, Garageland blog/magazine, Transition Gallery, London
Catalogue, Arts Council funded in the British Library Collection
Paul Carey-Kent, FAD magazine
Tom Carrao
Catologue
Catalogue
Review by Tom Carrao
Catalogue essay by Alice Butler (Frieze Writer's Prize Winner, 2012)
Catalogue essay by Alice Butler
Interview and feature by Nicola Ruben
Montini
Review of performance
April edition, review of de Kooning……
Curated by Dexter Dalwood, David
Risley Gallery, Copenhagen
Review of de Kooning, de Kooning, de
Kooning by Trine Ross, 6th February 2011
Review of de Kooning, de Kooning, de
Kooning
Expressionismen i dag by Av Maria Kjaer
Themsen
Her er Universet by Michael Jeppesen
Feature under Watchlist, pgs 30/31
Feature
Catalogue for solo exhibition, Mallorca
Performance, The Sassoon Gallery, London
Rochelle School, Arnold Circus, London
Auto-Italia Project Space, London
The Gallery, Wimbledon College of Art, London
Take Courage Gallery, New Cross, London
Casal de Cultura Museum,
Mallorca, Spain
Arts Council funded, Turf Projects, London
Camden Space Unlimited, London, NW1
Field Project Space, London
Collyer Bristow Gallery, London
through Zero Zero Gallery, Los Angeles
ASC Gallery, London
Furniture by Artists, David Risley Gallery, Copenhagen
Churchgate Gallery, Somerset. Curator: David Harrison
Stockport War Memorial Museum
Turf Projects, London. Arts Council funded. Curators: Vanessa Mitter and Ben Westley Clarke
Arthouse1 Gallery, London
Piano Nobile Gallery, London
Unit G Gallery, London
K Projects, Berlin
A-Side B-Side Gallery, London
A.P.T Gallery, London
2021
This Year's Model Part 1
Art on a Postcard - International Women's Day
2020
This Year's Model Part II
Art on a Postcard Auction for International Women's Day
2019
Art on a Postcard Charity Auction + Exhibition
Objects of Desire
GIFC and Velvet Ropes
Creekside Open
Mother Art Prize
ASC Gallery, London
House of Vans, London
APT Gallery and Studios, London
Mimosa House, London