Art | Jeffry Mitchell at Ambach and Rice

The earthenware sculptures in Shamrock Edelweiss Seaweed (April 7 – May 19, 2012), Jeffry Mitchell’s solo show at Ambach & Rice, Los Angeles, were charming and subtly menacing and easily lived up to the salty/sweet, organic multiplicity suggested by its title.

The sculptures were unified by palette; a rich, dark brown glaze that contained hints of green, blue and ocher on closer inspection. A close look was essential. Mitchell’s forms are heavily laden with an astounding variety of ceramic appliqués. Many of the works began as stacked pots but are almost completely obscured by chains, flowers with prominent stamens, shamrocks, holes, nails, lotus pods, anatomy, banners with engraved text and garlands of beads, some of which are pierced with fingers that began as flower petals. These symbolic motifs mingle with one another—each with its innuendos firmly intact—and the humor ranges from gentle to wicked. The sculptures were fashioned with love and wit and it’s easy to imagine Mitchell looking upon any lumpiness in his work with benevolence, if not delight. In the same spirit, Mitchell fashioned the sculptures’ wooden plinths from used packing crates.

Mitchell is based in Seattle but created all the works for the show in Los Angeles. In a review for The New York Times (published April 10, 2012), Brook Hodges wrote, “Mitchell says that a visit to the Getty Museum’s European Decorative Arts galleries was “over-the-top fantastic and provided inspiration for me, as did a visit to the artist Jorge Pardo’s installation of pre-Columbian work at the Los Angeles County Museum.” Mitchell’s acknowledged influence of Guston’s late work and the cartoonists Charles Schultz, George Herriman and R. Crumb is similarly obvious.

A pair of creatures welcomed visitors to the show. One reviewer likened them to the traditional Chinese guardian lion sculptures that flank entryways and others compared them to the Staffordshire pottery dogs that were popular in the Victorian era. Both of the lions/dogs have the word “HELLO” formed in large, unfussy letters near their bases. Otherwise they were a mass of protrusions that included flowers, dreadlocks, and chains, which brought to mind the image of a World War II sea mine: these animals were friendly but not tame—like the show itself.

Jeffry Mitchell was born in Seattle. He received his MFA at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University in Philadelphia. For over twenty-five years Mitchell has produced idiosyncratic sculptures, drawings, and prints. His oeuvre seamlessly combines high and low references that span religion, sex, nature, fine art, and folk and decorative arts traditions. Mitchell was the recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant in 2009. In 2012, The Henry Art Gallery in Seattle held, Like a Valentine: The Art of Jeffry Mitchell, a career spanning retrospective. Other recent exhibitions include Kurt at the Seattle Art Museum, Washington; Dirt on Delight at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; and the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards at the Portland Art Museum, Oregon. His work can be found in numerous private and public collections including the Seattle Art Museum, Philadelphia Art Museum, Fogg Art Museum, and the Portland Art Museum.

Amy Albracht is the General Editor at CFile.

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