Moving house, D.I.Y., charity shops; flea markets, distractions and attractions; things found and bought; work, play and improvisation, is just part of a list of points of motivation from which John Mitchell takes encounters made in the every-day into his work. In his work, these ‘things’ and ‘subjects’ are subjected to a layered analysis: part cultural, part biographical, part purely whimsical. John Mitchell has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally since 1980, including the New Contemporaries exhibition of that year and the 1990 British Art Show. His work has been exhibited at the Richard Demarco Gallery Edinburgh (1985 and ‘87) the Icon gallery (1988) and in the Svoboda Foundation, Prague (1997). His work has toured with the John Hansard Gallery, and he has had solo exhibitions at Maureen Paley-Interim Art (1986); the National Theatre, Ghana (1992) and Aberdeen Art Gallery (1994). 'Taxonomical Musings', a solo exhibition of John Mitchell’s work was held at the Westbrook Gallery, London in 2009.

David Waterworth