About

The work of contemporary artist Mitch Griffiths apprehends the viewer through a dissection of twenty first century existence. Richly  detailed, viscerally layered canvases disclose scenes which simultaneously examine notions of empire, guilt, celebrity and first world entitlement; whilst proffering to expose the essential vacuity of a society drenched in mass media and consumed by consumption itself. Griffiths employs an unflinching high realism to pick apart ideas which promise to haunt with an unnerving familiarity.
 
Inspired by the canon of representational painting and its enduring duty to hold a mirror to the civilisations which act as patron, Griffiths has adapted an old medium to the scrutiny of a new world.
 
With an initial approach which is surprisingly loose, Griffiths works in a direct and open-form style of application; rapidly manipulating generalised and abstracted masses and refining until specific details emerge. The viewer is not left with the cold scrutiny of hyper-realism, but instead a complex and painterly reality of the artists own creation.

The work of Mitch Griffiths does not merely depict the world; he creates works of presence which inhabit their own space and context.

Video

Behind the scenes