Tiyana Mitchell USA, b. 2001

Mitchell’s paintings are informed by a peripatetic life spanning Cyprus, Jordan and multiple US states as well as meticulous research into her family’s photography archive.

Sparked by a chance meeting with an unknown friend of her grandfather’s, who died when she was six years old, Mitchell became fascinated by this man she barely knew, searching for photographs online that ultimately led to her family’s archive on the Arab Image Foundation website. In 2021 she travelled back to Jordan and began her research in earnest, asking her grandmother to help her unravel their shared history.

Slowly, personalities and stories emerged, and Mitchell was confronted with a personal and political history she hadn’t known existed. Following her grandmother’s passing, three further photo albums were retrieved. In contrast to the other albums, these were unlabelled. Drawn to their enigmatic beauty, these photographs came to be the main source of material for Mitchell’s paintings.

A keen photographer herself, Mitchell is careful to honour the spirit of her source material, cropping and isolating fragments that catch her eye while holding true to her grandfather’s vision. In this way, granddaughter and grandfather work side by side, in an unresolved conversation that reaches across time. 

Mitchell’s paintings explore and expose the veracity of memory, the disconnect between seeing and knowing and the allure of the image. 

Mitchell lives and works in London, UK. She holds a Masters in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London, UK and a dual degree in Fine Arts and History from Parsons School of Design and Eugene Lang College, New York, USA.