Biography
Dane Mitchell lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand. He trained at the former Auckland School of Arts (now Auckland University of Technology) before teaching there intermittently for the following ten years.
Mitchell’s practice is concerned with the physical properties of the intangible and visible manifestations of other dimensions. His work teases out the potential for objects and ideas to appear and disappear, and our ability to perceive or imagine the occurrence of transfiguration. His artworks evoke a connection between the sensual experiences and the conscious systems of knowledge. Incorporating scent, spells and shamans, his work channels invisible forces into concrete forms, coupling spiritual tendencies with minimalism and conceptualism.
Dane has an extensive national and international exhibition history, including participation in a number of biennales across Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom and Asia. He has held solo exhibitions at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo and Institut d’Art Contemporain de Villeurbanne, Lyon as well as participating in a citywide project in Belgium, PLAY Kortrijk.
In 2019 Dane held a solo exhibition Iris Iris Iris at Auckland Art Gallery before travelling to Italy to represent New Zealand at the 58th edition of the prestigious Venice Biennale. Here, his installation Post hoc included 260 meticulously researched lists of countless phenomena that existed, but are now no more. The list categories included burnt books, former nations, closed radio stations, extinct languages, dead religions, missing aircraft, discontinued fragrances, cosmic debris among many others. The archive was announced through seven six metre tall cell phone ‘tree towers’ and also printed as a typed archive, which expanded as the installation progressed. In 2020, Mitchell has exhibitions scheduled at Christchurch Art Gallery and Adam Art Gallery to introduce Post hoc to a New Zealand based audience.
April, 2020