The Visionary Art of Steven V. Mitchell
                                                                         PANDEMONIUM
                                                                       In The Rose Garden
                                                               Walcot Street Mortuary Chapel
                                                                            Walcot Street
                                                                                  Bath
                                                                              BA15UG
                                                                       DarkBlackArt.com

                Beyond the bridges between the realm of reality and magic exists a world of appearances that is only accessible by those select few MASTERS whose faculties subordinate the conventional means of ordinary man. STEVEN MITCHELL is one of these MASTERS! An extraordinary artist of the Visionary, Fantastic and Surreal, Mitchell’s work possesses the main ingredients of the magical and the marvelous.  An artist whose unique testimony to the otherworldly and the possibilities of transcending the ordinary, the immediate connection is subordinated to the wondrous sphere of the unseen, which Mitchell exposes to us in his works. Take for example the piece, “HOMAGE”, where a mythical beast is riding on top of a crucifix that appears to have an orifice on top, or  “NECTAR” where a giant flower is positioned in what appears to be a monster’s fetus, both pieces are formulated in the spectral sense according to the artistic doctrine of Mitchell.

All of the artworks in Steven Mitchell’s most recent exhibit, “PANDEMONIUM IN THE ROSE GARDEN” lays testament to the fact that the access to the ancient dream is more than a devilishly insinuating temptation, it’s a sacrifice of the human spirit to the unseen forces of the magical that Mitchell creates with his palette. Not many artists are competent in that arena, and yet, Mitchell, like a wizard and shaman, induces such a potent narcotic into our eyes and souls that it’s just inevitable to become possessed by his works.  The beasts in his paintings are emboldened with a sense of modern urgency, where the human and beast elements are synthesized into one motif, BEASTHUMAN. Notice in one of the paintings,

“MEDUSA” where the Woman Human Figure is centered in (and morphed into) what appears to be a garden lake of snakes, total harmony in a chaotic setting, thus, amplifying the theme of his show, “PANDEMONIUM IN THE ROSE GARDEN”.

The paintings of Steven Mitchell are parchments of the Ancients, where Mythology is not stricken with a “charming” flash of light, but an essence and insight into the most powerful of all stratums, MAGIC!!!!!!

I strongly recommend this exhibit to all art lovers and those who are not familiar with the work of Steven Mitchell. You are in store for something beyond the realm of appearance, you will be POSSESSED!!!!!!!

Keith Wigdor