Dean Mitchell’s studio is filled with light from large windows, the kind of light painters pay extra for. Several easels are set up around the room, each holding a painting at a different stage. Hundreds of brushes, old and new, circle close around his work area. The walls hold articles that clearly matter, including a New York Times piece that changed many things for him.
We went to his studio expecting to do an interview, however, it didn’t take long to realize this wasn’t going to be an interview in the traditional sense. We sat at the table to talk, but mostly, I listened. He talks the same way he paints: soft and direct, without trying to dramatize anything.
Dean has a way of telling his story about his art and his life, moving from the beginning to now without forcing a narrative. It’s full of highs and lows, determination, and love…
Mitchell’s current exhibition at the Museum of Art + Light grew out of a long chain of relationships rather than a single invitation. One show led to another. A museum exhibition in Denver led to coverage in The Christian Science Monitor, which led to a show at the Beach Museum. That connection led to Crosby Kemper, a longtime supporter of the university and museum.
Years earlier, the museum’s founders had purchased a painting of Rowena. Their daughter, now the museum’s executive director, grew up with that painting on the wall. When the idea for a new museum began to take shape, Mitchell’s work was
already part of the conversation.
When he first received the call, Mitchell was unsure what his place would be. The museum focuses on immersive and digital presentation, and he was clear that he wasn’t a digital artist. What mattered to them, they told him, was the work itself.
He was flown out while the museum was still under construction. What he saw changed his understanding of what the space could hold. When the museum opened, Mitchell and his family attended the inaugural exhibition. Watching his children experience the work inside that environment left a deep impression.
Later, the museum approached him about creating the first large-scale presentation by a living artist. The scope was significant. Hundreds of high-resolution images. Months of planning. His work categorized across portraits and landscapes. A theme he titled The Erosion of Time.
When the installation was finally revealed to him, Mitchell was unprepared for the result.
“When they opened it up, I was blown away. I had never seen anything like it. The way they presented the work, the music, the pacing. It was mind-boggling.”
What stays with him is not the technology, but the intention behind it. “It’s all about the story being told,” Mitchell said. “This is how younger people are communicating. But what I love is that the museum connects it back to the original work. They want people to understand the full range of how art is made.”
The exhibition occupies multiple levels of the museum. Alongside the immersive installation, an additional floor presents more than fifty original works. Together, they form a body of work that spans regions, decades, and subjects.
For Mitchell, the experience was humbling, but not in the way people often mean.
The people Dean Mitchell paints are family. Neighbors. People whose lives unfolded far from from institutions and headlines. People who are rarely asked to be looked at closely.
“A lot of the paintings in there are of my family,” Mitchell said. “And the terrain I’ve traveled. It covers the American landscape. There’s the South, the Midwest, and the West. It’s like seeing my life being flashed back to me. Seeing my family celebrate, seeing people I crossed paths with along the way.”
At the MoA+L, those lives are given space. They are held in light. They are allowed their time.
They honor them by insisting they were always worthy of being seen.
The full article is available here.