OPENING EVENT: Wednesday 7 February, 5.30-7.30pm

The Curse of Knowledge ponders the cognitive bias that occurs when an individual, who is communicating with others, assumes that others have information that is only available to themselves. Mitchell pulls apart this notion with her research into the lives of musicians, artists, writers and characters from religious and mythological histories.   Her works are a sassy and subversive bricolage of painting media and eccentric imagery utilised to explore the potency of pictures. 

This exhibition follows on from Mitchell’s exhibition of new work at The Dowse Art Museum in Wellington as part of “Strange Friends” curated by director Karl Chitham.

Sam Mitchell completed her BFA at the Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, in 2000. Since then she has exhibited works nationally and internationally in private galleries as well as public art institutions.  Mitchell has received many prestigious awards for her work including the Paramount Award at the Wallace Art Awards (2010) allowing a six-month residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Programme in New York. In 2014 she was the William Hodges Fellow in Invercargill and had a resulting solo exhibition at the Southland Art Gallery and Museum. In 2015 she was the Tylee Cottage Artist in Residence in Whanganui with a resulting exhibition at The Sarjeant Gallery the same year.