Tiyana Mitchell: Conversations across Time
Larkin Durey is delighted to present an exhibition of recent work by Tiyana Mitchell, the artist’s first solo show in the UK.
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, with COVID restrictions lifted, she travelled back to Jordan and began her research in earnest, asking her grandmother to help her unravel their shared history as they pored over the family photo albums.
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, with only some details Mitchell recognised from other images to orientate her. Drawn to their enigmatic beauty, these photographs came to be the main source of material for Mitchell’s paintings.
A keen and adept photographer, 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. By presenting us with only part of the story, we share her perpetual wonder at what remains just out of reach.
Mitchell was born in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA and 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.
