Allyson Mitchell is a maximalist artist working in sculpture, performance, installation and film. Her practice melds feminism and pop culture to investigate contemporary ideas about sexuality, autobiography and the body, largely through the use of reclaimed textile and abandoned craft. These articulations have resulted in a coven of lesbian feminist Sasquatch monsters, a room-sized Vagina Dentata, an army of super genius Holly Hobbies and a woodland utopic library complete with a wishing well of forbidden political knowledge.

Her works have exhibited in galleries and festivals across Canada, the US and Europe, including Tate Modern, the Textile Museum of Canada, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, the Andy Warhol Museum, Walker Art Center, The British Film Institute, Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Ontario.

A survey of Mitchell’s “hand made” animated film and video work recently toured festivals and performance spaces internationally with exhibitions in Dublin, London and Bologna. Until their retirement in 2004, Mitchell also performed actively with the fat performance troupe ‘Pretty Porky and Pissed Off’, which she co-founded in 1997.

‘Deep Lez’, Mitchell’s ongoing aesthetic/political project advocating a strategic return to the herstories of radical and lesbian feminisms, has been the subject of dialogue within queer and trans communities in recent years. This ethic has caused a stir with activists and artists alike in a range of venues from living room potlucks and academic conferences to public galleries and museums.

Mitchell recently attended the Canada Council for the Arts International Studio (ISCP) in New York City. She is based in Toronto, where she is an Associate Professor in the School of Women’s Studies at York University. She is represented by Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects and she runs FAG Feminist Art Gallery with Deirdre Logue.

Artist Code: 1054