Robin Mitchell. Spellbound.

About

Spellbound is Robin Mitchell’s eighth solo exhibition at Craig Krull Gallery.  An exploratory path of evolving imagery continues to unfurl and expand throughout those distinct but interconnected bodies of work.  Mitchell’s first exhibition at CKG entitled, Code Paintings was reviewed for Art in America in 2007 by Constance Mallinson. Likening the shapes in her gouache paintings to Egyptian hieroglyphics, mandalas and 50’s design motifs, Mallinson concluded that Mitchell’s “heightened sense of the spirit and rhythms in nature is heir to Arthur Dove’s and Charles Burchfield’s investigations of a life force beyond mere appearances.” Subsequent bodies of her work appear to be moving closer and closer to almost microscopic views of these forms.  The current work suggests vibrant atomic particles in radiating patterns, visually expanding from the center to become, as Mitchell states, “an expressive physical representation of energy and emanations.”  She thinks of that central image as “the exuberant self.”  Her work demonstrates that gestures and brushstrokes can be abstract, representational, and referential all at the same time, evoking the tangible and the ineffable, embracing a spiritual essence.