This past Friday, a benefit art show opened at the Jeweler's Eye on the Downtown Mall. The show, called "Ghost," featured artist Gerald "Gerry" Mitchell. The opening went very well, with an exciting amount of interest from the masses of people that piled into the small venue. Almost half of the artwork was sold that night, a rare feat in the art world. Opening night, people from many different backgrounds came to enjoy the art. The one thing that all had in common was a joy and love for life, much like the attitude displayed through Mitchell's work.
Mitchell began holding benefit shows in 1999 to raise money for the International Rescue Committee, helping to provide for refugee families who came from Kosovo to Virginia. When speaking about "Ghost," Mitchell stressed that he doesn't hold these shows to promote himself or even really his artwork. While the shows are primarily about art, they are meant more as a way for people to help a good cause while gaining something for themselves in the process.
For this particular show, half of the proceeds from the sales of postcard prints of his artwork and of the artwork itself will be donated to the AIDS/HIV Services Group. Diagnosed with HIV 21 years ago and with full-blown AIDS six years ago, Mitchell has been associated with ASG for four years now; he has stayed in the Wiseman House, ASG's community AIDS house, for three of those years.
It is based on these experiences, both in the Wiseman House and through his life with HIV and AIDS in general, that Mitchell named his show "Ghost" - not for any supernatural or frightening images, but for the memories of his life and of the many friends he has lost to AIDS over the years. His art revolves around nostalgia and sentiment.
Mitchell's love of art began as a child growing up mostly in Charlottesville. Both of his parents encouraged his love of all the arts, from traditional paintings to postmodernism to music and opera. He graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1975 with BFAs in painting and printmaking and held a prestigious fellowship at Yale University in these two fields. From there, Mitchell traveled to San Francisco, where he gained entry into the world of art by working for free at the highly reputable James Willis Gallery. Throughout his life, he has lived and worked in galleries in Madrid, Spain and New Zealand as an international art dealer.
As far as his own work is concerned, Mitchell is greatly influenced by artists such as Picasso and Robert Roshenburg. He favors paper as his medium - a revolutionary concept when he began his artistic career, but now not such an unusual style. Paper's flexibility works particularly well for paintings and collages, which are his favorite vehicles for art and dominate the works on display and for sale at this show.
Mitchell claims that his work is not meant to be particularly beautiful or soothing, but rather is meant for the person who loves detail, who loves to take his time looking and examining a work of art. Mitchell's method uses a contrast of old and new images, some several hundred years old and on tintypes. The consequent contrast of colors - old and new, vibrant and subtle - draws people into the many layers of his pieces and urges them to discover occasional hidden love messages within his pieces. According to the artist, his works are "pop images that anyone can relate to, a juxtaposition of modern and old.
"You can't move ahead without the past," he says.
Regarding his collages, Mitchell says, They're "very complicated."
"Artists reflect the world, and the world is very complicated."
"Ghost" is a show very much worth stopping by to see, not only because the artwork is engaging and vibrant, but because Mitchell is now working with a disabled group called Very Special Artists. This is his last AIDS benefit show, and possibly the last chance to see his incredibly captivating art.
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