S. V. Mitchell Solo Exhibition London 2009 
Visionary Artist Steven V. Mitchell has challenged the establishment and our imagination again, with his biggest solo exhibit since the mind bending 'Pandemonium' took on us a fantastic and unforgettable journey.
'Saturnalia: A Feast for Fools' was held at the legendary London home for the subversive and the controversial art form,
'The Horse Hospital'.
'Saturnalia: A Feast for Fools' May 29th-June 7th 2009
Beyond the bridge 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!
Keith Wigdor 'Surrealism Now'
click on image to see exhibition photos
Interview with Steve Mitchell
regarding Art, Subversion and the
Lord of Misrule
I’ve been a fan of your art for many years; from your work as a tattoo artist, your carving of crystal skulls and now to what I consider to be the medium which I think you seem to show the greatest ability to express your true self, painting.Would you agree, that from all your years as an artist in various mediums, painting has given you have found the greatest ability to express yourself?
Yes, painting is the medium I feel I can express fully.Let me explain. Tattooing is a art form which I love and respect , but when I am tattooing someone it is not my inner visions that I am expressing , it is the inner visions of the client, admittedly in my style and interpretation. Tattoo art for me is about helping clients express their inner vision, with a few exceptions. Tattooing has a great place in my heart, and a rightful place in the art world, but it was restrictive to me as a visionary artist.The carving of the crystal skulls was a vision/mission I received while living with the Native Americans in Canada. The skulls have many interesting metaphysical property, The creation of the skulls marked the transition in my work from tattooing to painting,[ service to visionary creation ]. Painting is the medium I can fully express my self into. I love the magic of bringing a vision to life in 2d. There is magic in a painting [not some of the crap I see in so many art shops and gallery] painted by a master; it has the intoxicating power to bridge the 2d and 3d world. I don’t know of any other medium that does this. I have great respect for the masters of the past, I strive to reach the highs in my paintings. A master painter can create a painting of a door, and I believe I can walk through it. This is magical, and inspiring to me. I see my visions in my mind’s eye, and use painting to express them as beautifully as I can, and then you can walk into my reality. I was pleased to see that you had started to show your work beyond the cult following which you have amassed over the years. What made you decide to do this, as within your own sphere you have achieved success both financially and in terms of positive reaction. I wanted to share my visions, this is the driving force to exhibit.
Steve, your first exhibition ‘Pandemonium in the Rose Garden’, in Walcot Street Mortuary Chapel was superb. I found it to be more of an installation piece than simply an exhibition. Can we expect the same in London?
Yes , with a few surprises!!! I've been working feverishly towards this show for 2 years.
Interesting that your first exhibition was at an old Mortuary Chapel and your next will be in a building that was originally in a slum area which housed the undesirables and underclass’s before it was custom built to house a horse hospital. Why the choice of such interesting venues? Wouldn’t it be easier to exhibit in mainstream galleries?
I chose these venues because they compliment my art, and also my art compliments them. The installation, location, paintings, all have to work together to create the visionary experience, I want people to feel and experience my art in the best possible way. I have and do exhibit on ''white walls '' as I call them. However to be fair to my art, I want to put on an exhibition, not just hang art on a wall.
In modern terms The Horse Hospital has a reputation for putting on exhibitions of various forms of art that falls outside the conventional and mainstream: anarchic and subversive art. Do you feel this is the place your own work belongs; in the world of the ‘outsider’?
Well, when I first went to visit the HH, I was impressed by the space, and after talking with its owner and curator about my vision for the show, I knew that it was where I wanted to do my next exhibition. The space lends itself perfectly to my vision of ‘Saturnalia, The Feast for Fools’. Whether or not my art belongs in the outsider category is an enigma. My art is enjoyed and collected by people from all walks of life. For example, at my last show … Tattoo freaks , pop stars , bank managers, factory workers, house wives , children, all mingled together. I watched Leonard Cohen, a young girl with her mother and a big biker, all stand together enjoying one of my painting. I can’t put my art into a box, As for my self, I think one of my collectors puts it well. He said, '' Hey Steve I’ve known you for 20 years and I finally understand something now , we are all inside this life looking out the window at your world, but you bastard you’re on the other side looking in at us!” That pretty much sums up how I feel about fitting into the establishment. Now the title of your exhibition ‘Saturnalia, A Feast for Fools’ is interesting.
I did a few Goggle searches (as one does) and found that Saturnalia was a Roman Festival where Saturn (the God of Restriction)) is unbound and holy hell reigns. Roles of gender and status were reversed and chaos was let loose. The Feast of Fools was a mediaeval continuation of this and both festivals were ruled by a ‘Lord of Misrule’. Usually this festival was at Winter Solstice, but you have even reversed the times as your exhibition is on the build up to the Summer Solstice! Why have you gone with this title and theme; the fact that your title ties in with your exhibition being shown in the centre of subversive art, The Horse Hospital, seems no coincidence. Do you consider yourself to be a ‘Lord of Misrule ’? Lord no, I'm Mitchell the artist!!!!
Here's the feeling I wrote down, while sketching the vision for the show.
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I am blowing your fiddle in a stove pipe hat,
bring me a feast for fools
and set the trickster free
I want to hear colours, see sound
and turn the whole fucking thing upside down.
So enslave the muse,
hang the judge
and rip the veil from lovers.
Geisha can dance her flamenco to the wheel of industry's music,
let stone be more precious than flesh,
and doves rip meat from bone
Dark gods can drink tea, and read the FT
and kings can ride in carousels
for today is Saturnalia
and the horned god pisses on the cross,
and I rule the world
for I am Misrule in a stove pipe hat.
Mitchell 2009........ ;-)--'
ON THE ART OF STEVEN V. MITCHELL
by Keith Wigdor
It is not a simple gesture to take that leap into the art and world of the artist, STEVEN V.MITCHELL, for it is an awakening of the spirit, mind and flesh. When my eye steps into Mitchell’s world, I become the slaughtered oxen, only to be reborn into sparkling labyrinth that IS his art and work, pure magic!!! If there ever was a painter who is determined to be an integral part of a living art movement, its Steven Mitchell, with the coercive powers of his masterful artworks, “Homage”, “Spinning Jenny”, “Obsessive Jester”, etc, using that magnetic finger guiding his brush to the depths of mythology and the underworld. We need to explore this dark universe that Steven lures us into, for it becomes a breathable air of expression, our optical senses revitalized by pieces, such as, “DEATH” and “NECTAR” are a good example of this. I am compelled into the most vigorous way of seeing when I look at his art. Its not a matter of wanting to identify with the artwork, etc, but to accept the great responsibility of this rite of passage that Steve Mitchell leads myself and everyone else into. It’s a matter of necessity to be reborn with a new wisdom of life!!! Clarity is the key exists here in the art, a strike of lightning, a real formation of transcendence, the key to Steve’s mythological underworld. Even fate itself, cannot be predetermined in this case, for these optimal currents is the approach of death and I do not fear this, because of Steven’s ability to annihilate the logical reality of our modern “world of appearances” and deliver us to the Nectar of his art that is the reward of rebirth and reawakening. I reference his piece, “ABSINTH”. I also would like to discuss “THE JUDGE”, a new painting where the ‘judge’ figure is positioned by Steven which appears to be confronting our primal and biomorphical ‘mechanical’ state, past and present. There is certainly a Giger presence here, but perfectly constructed and orchestrated by Mitchell to be presented totally unique and original. An alarm goes off in my soul when I view these artworks, as if I am reborn into unquenchable freshness of the textures that flows so smooth in these paintings. For example, “GEISHA” a female perfectly balanced in blue and gray, an area that can be debated as diametrically opposed but somehow becomes fashionable thanks to Mitchell’s brushwork, this just floored me when I first looked at it. The secret of the charm is fully exposed in the blues and grays, and I never seen this done with such balance, that is what really impresses me when I analyzed his painting style. I like this measure of harmony, so to speak, that did not exist in the natural state that I am accustomed to before I saw this painting. This leads to me another area of thought regarding Steve’s work, tracing the development back to the shaman, that shaman that is Steven Mitchell. The eternal theme of man’s desire and flesh that sings with the opiate spasm of fire reminiscent of Rimbaud’s poetry. The proximity of the figures in Steve’s art are very close to the ‘Palais Ideal’ of Facteur Cheval, where every figure and texture resides in the Temple of the Sacred! They are all literally morphed into this very spasm of fire: the irresistible force of darkness and body of wisdom. The viewer must take into consideration when offering themselves up to Steve and his art, that its more than a climate of transformation, it’s a world of passionate discovery, a world that is healed by the shaman artist, and a world that is really natural, even beyond the “myth” of our modern day world ruled by restrictive logic. We are freed from this virtual no-man’s land into a real world of myth and enlightenment that is the world of
Steven V. Mitchell and his art! VIVA MITCHELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All images are the copyrighted work of S. V. Mitchell. from the studio of S. V. Mitchell Fine Art INC and may not be used or reproduced without the sole permission of the artist.