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Dane Mitchell
Dane Mitchell is an artist and lecturer in fine arts and media at the University of Melbourne Victorian College of the Arts
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Dane Mitchell is a New Zealand artist and academic, who lectures on fine arts and media at the University of Melbourne Victorian College of the Arts. Since Dane started exhibiting his art in 1999, he has had more than 30 solo exhibitions in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, South America and the US. He has also been part of group exhibitions, including in New Zealand, France, Italy and Thailand. His most recent exhibition Iris, Iris, Iris was held at Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in 2023.
Dane’s art considers disappearance and the rift between objects and memory. His work teases out the potential for objects and ideas to appear and disappear, and our ability to perceive or imagine this transfiguration. His artworks evoke a connection between what we sense and what we know. By incorporating scent and smells, his work channels invisible forces into concrete forms, coupling belief systems with the conventions of minimalism and conceptualism. Dane has exhibited some controversial works related to ideologies, systems, hierarchies and social behaviours.
After graduating from art school in 1999, Dane got involved in an art project in Italy where he met Marcos Chaves, a Brazilian contemporary artist. Marcos introduced Dane to the art scene in Brazil, which led to him exhibit his work at a contemporary art gallery - A Gentil Carioca – in Rio de Janeiro. A Gentil Carioca is a prominent business and cultural centre and social hub that gives art lovers and collectors a place to interact with art, have artistic and critical debate and expand their networks.
Dane has exhibited his work in Brazil on many occasions. He has had two solo shows at A Gentil Carioca: Análise (2004) and A Abrigo ou Um Temor do Toque do Desconhecido (2006). He was also invited to present his artwork Abrigo on the wall outside the gallery, as part of an ongoing project called Parede Gentil (2006). In 2004, Dane’s work was included at the New Zealand National Pavilion at the São Paulo Art Biennial, curated by Tobias Berger. In 2008, he took part in the four-person exhibition Casa Sem Domo at Gallery Casa Triangulo, São Paulo, which included work he had created with Alexandre/Seu Sete, a local Candomblé practitioner. And in 2015, he exhibited artwork at the first Trio Bienal in Rio de Janeiro.
Through his work in Brazil, Dane met the Brazilian installation artist Lucia Koch and invited her to the 2007 Spark Ramp Festival in New Zealand. During her visit, Lucia had a solo show called Two Todays at the Starkwhite Gallery (Auckland). She also presented her work at the Spark International Festival of Media, Arts and Design (Hamilton) and visited the Len Lye Centre (New Plymouth).
Dane’s work was also included in TRANS VERSA: Conversing Across the South, which was an exhibition in Santiago, Chile, in 2006, curated by Dr Zara Stanhope and Danae Mossman. The exhibition reflected the historical, geographical and botanical similarities between Australia, Chile and New Zealand, which all have a Pacific Ocean coastline and were colonised by a European country.
Published 02 November 2023
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Further Reading
Dane Mitchell. 2008. Casa Sem Domo.
Gwynneth Porter. 2006. Instructions for Assembly.
