One year ago, artist Mike Mitchell, had his “Just Like Us” solo show at Gallery 1988. What started as something fun and readily obtainable quickly snowballed into some highly valuable and sought after art. Mike has continued to reinvent himself over the past year, and Friday night, he returned to Gallery 1988 with a show he not only participated in, but curated. With a monster lineup of artists, “SPACE!”, was an extremely impressive show that saw a welcome departure from the normal pop culture fare associated with Mike and some of the other artists involved. Check out pics of the art and some of my impressions after the jump.
With contributing artists such as Kevin Tong, N.C. Winters, and Daniel Danger, (just to name a few) this show was stacked with some heavy hitters that really lived up to expectation. Even Olly Moss participated with a set of mission patches. One was for the attendees, the other for the artists. Daniel Danger’s, “And I’ll Only Feel Smaller and Smaller”, was definitely one of the favorites. A massive 36”x48”x2” ink on craddled clayboard, absolutely commanded a presence. I attempted to get a few other attendees to enter into a tontine with me, to cover the $4,500 price tag, however it sold before I was able to convince anyone. I was also particularly taken with Dustin Harbin’s, “Alone at Night 1”. Just an astronaut floating in white space, so simple, so perfect. There was also a sister piece with the same astronaut floating in black space, which looked to be made up with an insane amount of crosshatching.
Of course Mike Mitchell was also involved, having four pieces in the show. The first being an almost “Just Like Us” style astronaut figure floating in space with some of his trademark playfulness. The other three were what seem to be part of Mike’s new series of 70s style action figures of famous people. These included, Carl Sagan, Neil Degrasse Tyson, and everyone’s favorite Canadian astronaut, Chris Hadfield. Being a huge fan of Dr. Tyson, I had to have that little piece for my wall.
Overall, the show seemed like a huge success and even though he only had a few pieces available, you were able to see the continued evolution of Mitchell. Being that prints were in the minority and it was mostly OGs, you can expect to see some things still available on Gallery 1988’s website. Check out the 100 pictures of all the art from the show and bask in the wonderfulness that is SPACE!
click on any image for high-res