allysonm


Allyson Mitchell

Photo of Allyson Mitchell

School of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies

Associate Professor

Office: Founders College, 206
Phone: 416-650-5800
Email: allysonm@yorku.ca
Primary website: http://www.allysonmitchell.com/html/lady_sasquatch.html
Secondary website: https://www.facebook.com/FeministArtGallery


My practice as an artist, academic and activist is diverse and unusual. Currently, I run the FAG feminist art gallery as a political hub of queer and feminist cultural production. Most recently, I collaboratively made Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House. I am interested in affect, craft, fatness, sex, intersectionality, practice based research and queer/feminist art.

More...

Degrees

Ph.D., York University
M.A., York University
B.A., York University

Appointments

Faculty of Graduate Studies

Community Contributions

2010- present Co-director of FAG Feminist Art Gallery, Toronto

Research Interests

Gender Issues , Sexuality, Feminist / Queer Art, Queer Studies, Affect Theory, Practice Based Research
  • Canada Council for the Arts Grant - 2019
  • Ontario Arts Council Grant - 2019
  • Toronto Arts Council Grant - 2018
  • SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant: Designing Crip Futures, Co-Applicant - 2018
  • Ontario Arts Council Grant - 2017
  • Toronto ARts Council Grant - 2017
  • Canada Council for the Arts Grant - 2017
  • SSHRC Connection Grant: Sexuality Studies Summer Institute, Co-Applicant - 2016
  • SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology and Access to Life,Co-Applicant - 2015
  • Ontario Arts Council Grant - 2014
  • Ontario Arts Council Grant - 2012
  • Canada Council for the Arts Grant - 2012
  • Toronto Arts Council Grant - 2012
  • Ontario Arts Council Grant - 2012
  • Canada Council for the Arts- International Residence Program- New York City - 2009

Current Research Projects

FAR

    Summary:

    FAR is a feminist art project situated on 64 acres of conservation-protected, organic farmland in rural Ontario, Canada.

    FAR is an expansive site for queer and feminist artists to come, to live, to conceptualize and produce land art projects alongside the 12 principles of permaculture: observe and interact, catch and store energy, obtain a yield, applying self-regulation and feedback, value renewables, produce no waste, design from patterns to details, integrate don’t segregate, use small slow solutions, use and value diversity, use edges and value the marginal, creatively use, and respond to change (Waddington, ethical.net, 2019). FAR will also serve as a sanctuary and respite for artists and activists wishing to simply develop ideas, plan, write, research, rest and recharge.

    Description:

    Set deliberately outside the conventions and restrictions of traditional gallery, museum, institutional and classroom settings, FAR expands on the intentional, intergenerational and queer feminist community building mandate of the FAG Feminist Art Gallery (Toronto) run by Deirdre Logue and Allyson Mitchell since 2010. While FAG (a 450-square foot garage situated in our backyard) is feminist, it is not a women’s art project; it is equally engaged with gender, race, class, and ability. FAG is an art and political potluck, varied in its effects and actions, but focused in its goal: to realize, enact, and support an alternative artist economy and relation.

    FAG has been a response and a protest, filled with humour, joy, and opportunity, bringing in who and what would not have space otherwise in conventional institutions. We host, we fund, we advocate, we support, we claim. Over the last decade FAG has been home to over 50 artists from all over the world who have come here to craft, publish, create, disseminate and rest. FAG has been seen as a breath of much needed fresh air and an important touchstone in the community. Our work has been featured significantly in feminist history anthologies that are often some of the first cohesively “archived” and published queer feminist histories, including in Desire Change: Contemporary Feminist Art in Canada (2017), edited by Heather Davis (see “A Speculative Manifesto for the Feminist Art Fair International: An Interview with Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue of the Feminist Art Gallery” by Amber Christensen, Lauren Fournier, and Daniella Sanader), Otherwise: Imagining queer feminist histories (2017), edited by Amelia Jones and Erin Silver (see our interview with curator Helena Reckitt), and The Art of Feminism: Images that Shaped the Fight for Equality, 1857-2017 (2018) by Lucinda Gosling, Hilary Robinson and Amy Tobin.

    Continuing to build and keep meaningful space in a hyper-gentrified and intensified city like Toronto has become untenable, and it’s now clearer than ever that a way forward, beyond the Feminist Art Gallery, must be found. While our ethos remains the same, the strategy must adapt.

    Located less than two hours from Toronto and easily accessible via a cross-country train line, bus routes and a main highway, FAR will become part of a constellation of long-practicing artists and curatorial initiatives that have deliberately decentralized from urban settings in order to expand the connections between artists of all generations and locations.

    See more
    Role: Primary

    Start Date:
      Month: Mar   Year: 2021

Books

Publication
Year

Inside Killjoy’s Kastle: Dykey Ghosts, Feminist Monsters and Other Lesbian Hauntings, Cait McKinney and Allyson Mitchell (Vancouver: UBC Press and Toronto: Art Gallery of York University, 2019): 200 pp

2019

I’m Not Myself At All, Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue (Kingston: Agnes Etherington Art Gallery, 2015): 63 pp
(artist catalogue includes essays about the work by Sarah E.K. Smith and Heather Love)

2015

Ladies Sasquatch, Allyson Mitchell (Hamilton:McMaster Museum of Art, 2009): 56 pp. (artist catalogue includes essays about the work by Carla Garnet, Ann Cvetkovich and Josephine Mills) Pages authored by Mitchell = 34 of 56.

2009

Book Chapters

Publication
Year

Mitchell, A Deep Lez in Jessica Lack (ed) Why Are We Artists? 100 World Art Manifestos
(New York NY: Penguin Classics, 2017): 220-225

2017

Mitchell, A., Deep Lez in David Getsy (ed) Documents in Contemporary Art: Queer
(London UK: White Chapel and Cambridge Mass: MIT Press, 2016): 181-183.

2016

Mitchell, A., D Logue, and H Reckitt, Not At the Beginning and Not At the End. In Otherwise: Imagining Queer Feminist Art Histories, edited by A. Jones and E. Silver, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015): 356-371

2015

Mitchell, A and D Logue, “We Can’t Compete” In Complex Social Change: teaching,
performing, exhibiting, designing, mapping, edited by Josie Mills, (University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, 2015) 67-87.

2015

Mitchell, A Big Judy: Fatness, shame and the hybrid autobiography. In Embodied Politics in Visual Autobiography, edited by S. Brophy and J. Hladki (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014): 75-90

2014

L. Karaian & A Mitchell, Third-Wave Feminisms. In N. Mandell (ed), Feminist Issues, 5th Edition (Toronto: Pearson Education, 2010): 63-86

2010

Mitchell, A, "A Call to Arms", in When Women Rule the World: Judy Chicago in Thread (Toronto: The Textile Museum of Canada, 2008) 15-25, 85-98

2008

L. Karaian & A, Mitchell, Young Feminisms. In N. Mandell (ed), Feminist Issues, 4th Edition (Toronto: Pearson Education, 2005): 62-85

2005

Mitchell, A, “Porky”, in D. Kulick and A. Meneley (eds), Fat: The Anthropology of an Obsession (New York: Penguin, 2004): 211-226

2004

Mitchell, A. & A. Slone. “Fat and Femme, Or Squeezing a Whole Lot of Identity into One Pair of Control Top Nylons”, in C. Brushwood Rose and A. Camilleri (eds), Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2002): 47-57

2002

Turbo Chicks: Talking Young Feminisms, Allyson Mitchell, Lara Karaian and Lisa Rundle, Eds. (Toronto: Sumach Press, 2001) : 340pp. Mitchell, A, L Karainan & L Rundle: "Introduction": 11-24 Mitchell, Allyson: "The Writing's on the Wall: Feminist and Lesbian Graffiti as Cultural Production": 221-232

2001

Journal Articles

Publication
Year

Mitchell, A., Haunted By Her: Lesbian Feminist Representations and Receptions, Feminist Theory 0(0):1-13. 2019

2019

A. Mitchell, Deirdre Logue & Scott Miller Berry. "Are you Burning: Lizzie Borden's Born in Flames circa 2012" Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory. 23 (1): 52-65. 2013

2013

Conoley, C., A. Mitchell and D. Logue. "Making Space for Utopia, FAG and the Aesthetics of Activism: Christine Conoley interviews Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue" n. paradoxa international feminist art journal. 30(1): 67-76. 2012

2012

Mitchell, A. Deep Lez I Statement. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. 18(1): 18-21. 2011

2011

Mitchell, A. They Notice When Little Sister is Sticking It to Big Brother. Canadian Woman Studies 20/21(4/1): 61-62. 2001.

2001

Mitchell, A. Fat Teen Diary. Fireweed: A Feminist Quarterly of Writing, Politics, Art & Culture, 67(1): 13-17. 2000

2000

Conference Papers

Publication
Year

Mitchell, A. 2013, Hoarding, the Body and Autobiography, Clutter, Collections and Hoarding, University of Western Ontario, 1 March.

2013

Mitchell, A and Deirdre Logue. 2012, Can’t Compete / Won’t Compete: Disengagement as Feminist Art Strategy, University Art Association Canada, Montreal, QC, 2-3 November

2012

Mitchell, A and Deirdre Logue. 2012 Feminist Art Gallery as Anti-Institution. Institutions By Artists, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver BC, 12-14 October

2012

Mitchell, A. 2012 Fat Performance Art as Pedagogy and Subject. American Association of Geographers Annual General Meeting, New York NY, 24-27 February

2012

Mitchell, A. 2011. Fatties Bash Back: Fat Activism and Body Agency. Body Image and Self Esteem: Shades of Grey, National Eating Disorder Information Centre, Toronto ON, 2-3 May (keynote speaker)

2011

Mitchell, A. 2010. The Feminists Are Taking Over. Independent Media Arts Conference, Independent Media Arts Alliance of Canada, Toronto ON, 14-19 June

2010

Mitchell, A. 2007. Craft Your Troubles Away: Strategies for Craft Resistance. NeoCraft Conference, NSCAD University, Halifax NS, 23-24 November

2007

Mitchell, A. 2007. Fat Bodies and Resistance: The Performance Work of Cindy Baker. American Association of Geographers Annual General Meeting, San Francisco CA, 17-21 April

2007

Creative Works

Publication
Year

Intimate Proximities with Madelyne Beckles, Thames Art Gallery, Chatham ON

2019

Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House, with Deirdre Logue, Icebox Project Space, Philadelphia PA

2019

She’s Not Herself At All with Deirdre Logue, Anna Leowens Gallery, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax NS

2018

#SilenceisViolence, with Deirdre Logue, Morgan Sea, Heidi Cho, Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough

2016

Her’s Is Still a Dank Cave: Crawling Towards a Queer Horizon, 24 min, video, 2016, A Mitchell and D Logue

2016

I’m Not Myself At All with Deirdre Logue, Agnes Etherington Art Gallery, Queen’s University, Kingston ON

2015

Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House, with Deirdre Logue, One National Lesbian and Gay Archive at the USC Libraries, Los Angeles, CA

2015

We Can’t Compete with Deirdre Logue, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto ON

2015

Killjoy's Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House, London UK

2014

Killjoy's Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House, Art Gallery of York University, Toronto ON

2013

We Can’t Compete, 5 min, video, 2013, A. Mitchell and D. Logue. Commissioned by Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University.

2013

Cushion to Cat Chin, 3 min, Super8, 2012, A. Mitchell and D Logue. Commissioned by 8 Fest

2012

Creep Lez, Katherine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto ON

2012

Collaborative Exhibition - We Won’t Compete with Deirdre Logue Tate Modern, London UK; Access Gallery, Vancouver BC; Concordia University, Montreal QC

2012

Solo Exhibition Creep Lez, Katherine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto ON

2012

Solo Exhibition - Christmas Scars Me, Niagara Artist Centre, St. Catharines ON

2011

Solo Exhibition - A Girl’s Journey to the Well of Forbidden Knowledge, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto ON

2010

Solo Exhibition - Ladies Sasquatch, Art Gallery of Peterborough, Peterborough ON

2010

Solo Exhibition - Ladies Sasquatch, McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton ON; Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg MB; Lethbridge University Art Gallery, Lethbridge AB

2009

Solo Exhibition - Brain Child, Cambridge Galleries, Cambridge ON; AKA Gallery, Saskatoon SK

2009

Collaborative Exhibition - Animation Art with Martha Colburn Saw Gallery, Ottawa ON

2009

Afghanimation, 5 min, 35mm, 2008, A. Mitchell. Commissioned by CFMDC

2008

Foodie, 15 min, 35mm, 2008, A. Mitchell and F. Smyth

2008

Dyke Pussy, 1 min, video, 2008, A. Mitchell (Commissioned by Pride Toronto).

2008

Solo Exhibition - Brain Child, Union Gallery, Queen’s University, Kingston ON; La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse, Montreal QC

2008

Unca Trans, 4 min, Super 8/video, 2007, A. Mitchell and C. Zeidler

2007

Solo Exhibition - Hungry Purse: The Vagina Dentata In Late Capitalism, The Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto ON

2007

Solo Exhibition - Lady Sasquatch, University of Buffalo Art Gallery, State University of New York, Buffalo NY

2007

Solo Exhibition - Finger of Craft, Khyber Institute, Halifax NS

2007

Serious Fur, Stride Gallery, Calgary AB

2007

Solo Exhibition - Sasquatch Squat, Thrush Holmes Empire, Toronto ON

2007

Solo Exhibtion - Brain Freeze, York Quay Centre, Toronto ON

2007

Melty Kitty, 3 min, Super 8, 2006, A. Mitchell

2006

Solo Exhibition - Hungry Purse, Toronto Alternative Arts Fair International, Toronto ON

2006

Pretty Ugly, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto ON

2006

Tawny and Silverback, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto ON

2006

Defend the Sugar Bush with Andrew Harwood Levine Gallery, Culver City CA

2006

Granny Square Wreck Room with Paul Campbell Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto ON

2006

Feeding the Deer, 2 min, Super 8, 2005, A. Mitchell & P. Vermeersch

2005

Sasquatch Clutch, Toronto Alternative Art Fair International, Toronto ON

2005

Solo Exhibition - Lady Sasquatch, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto ON

2005

Solo Exhibition - Faux Naturelle, Gladstone Hotel Artist Designed Rooms, Toronto ON

2005

Lady Sasquatch with Andrew Harwood and Miuki Madelaire Chelsea Galleria Annex, Miami FL

2005

Granny Square Wreck Room with Paul Campbell, Toronto International Art Fair, Toronto ON

2005

Feels Like a Natural Woman with Whitney Lee The Cecille B Hunt Gallery, Webster University, St Louis MO

2005

Granny Square Wreck Room with Paul Campbell Come Up to My Room Design Show, Toronto ON

2005

Big Trubs, 3 min, Super 8/video, 2004, A. Mitchell

2004

Free! Bake! Sale! 4 min, video, 2004, A. Mitchell (Commissioned by Trinity Square Video)

2004

Solo Exhibition - Deep Lez Craft Den, Toronto Alternative Arts Fair International, Toronto ON

2004

Solo Exhibition - Big Trouble, CBC Atrium, Canadian Art Foundation, Toronto ON

2004

Solo Exhibition - The Fluff Stands Alone, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto ON

2004

Double CHIN Picnic with Christina Zeidler, RM Vaughan, Andrew Harwood Katherine Mulherin Art Projects, Toronto ON

2004

If Anyone Should Happen To Get In My Way, 5 min, 16mm, 2003, A. Mitchell & C. Zeidler

2003

Glitter, 1 min, 16mm, 2003, A. Mitchell & C. Zeidler

2003

Sicker Lover, 1 min, 16mm, 2003, A. Mitchell

2003

Precious Little Tiny Love, 3 min, Super 8/video, 2003, A. Mitchell

2003

Mayo Jar, 3 min, Super 8/Video, 2003. A. Mitchell

2003

Halfway Across Canada with Christina Zeidler The Other Gallery, Obsession Compulsion Collection Symposium Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff AB

2003

Pink-Eyed Pet, 3 min, Super8/Video, 2002, A. Mitchell & A. Vaughn

2002

Frisbee Ya Ya, video installation, 2002, A. Mitchell (Commissioned by Images Festival)

2002

Deliverance From Disaster, Bucky and Fluff’s Craft Factory Paul Petro Gallery, Toronto ON

2002

Flea Market Freak Out, Bucky and Fluff’s Craft Factory Katherine Mulherin Art Projects, Toronto ON

2002

Bon Bon, 4 min, 16mm, 2001, A. Mitchell & A. Vaughn

2001

Video Killed the Rodeo Star, video installation, 2001, A. Mitchell (Commissioned by Images Festival)

2001

Collaborative Exhibition - Rumpus Room, Bucky and Fluff’s Craft Factory Katherine Mulherin Art Projects, Toronto ON

2001

Itchy Ya Ya, 3 min. Super 8/video, 2000, A. Mitchell & A Vaughn

2000

Hair Pie, 3 min. Super 8/video, 2000, A. Mitchell & A Vaughn

2000

My Life in 5 Minutes, 7 min, computer animation, 2000, A. Mitchell (Commissioned by Canadian Broadcast Corporation)

2000

Collaborative Exhibition - Lucky Charms, Bucky and Fluff’s Craft Factory Katherine Mulherin Art Projects, Toronto ON

2000

Candy Kisses, 2.5 min, 16mm, 1999, A. Mitchell

1999

TV Did This To Me, 2.5 min, 16mm, 1999, A. Mitchell

1999

Cupcake, 2.5 min, Super 8/video, 1998, A. Mitchell

1998

Don’t Bug Me, 1 min, 16mm, 1997, A. Mitchell

1997

Chow Down, 3 min, Super8/video, 1997, A. Mitchell

1997

3 Minute Rock Star Compilation, 60 min, Super8/video, 1997, A. Mitchell and J. Farrow

1997

My Very Own After School Special, 5 min, video 1997, A. Mitchell

1997

Bad Brownies, 20 min, video, 1997, A Mitchell

1997

Public Lectures

Publication
Year

FAG Feminist Art Gallery Presentation Ecology of An Art Scene, Canadian Art Foundation, Toronto ON

2013

FAG Feminist Art Gallery Presentation Independent Archives, Singapore, SG

2013

Because I Say It Is: Tools for Feminist Description Obourn Contemporary Art, Toronto ON

2013

Feminist Art Collections Whippersnapper Gallery, Toronto ON

2013

Interview with Filmmaker Barbara Hammer Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto ON

2013

FAG feminist art gallery As Alternative Art Space Musagetes: Big Ideas in Art and Culture, Guelph ON

2013

Artist Talk University of Western Ontario, London ON

2013

Artist Talk Nippising University, North Bay ON

2013

Mitchell, A. 2013, Art Presentation in Feminist Context, Digital Arts Week, ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Singapore, May 7

2013

The Politics of Craft Roundtable, Struts Gallery, Sackville NB

2012

Artist Talk Centre for Innovation in Canadian Culture, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops BC

2012

Mitchell, A and Deirdre Logue. 2012, FAG Feminist Art Gallery: Productive from the Margins, Creating the Periphery: Shifting Geographies in Contemporary Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1 December.

2012

Mitchell, A. 2012 Queer Craft as Activist Strategy. Hand Made Assembly, Strutts Gallery, Sackville NB, 24-27 October

2012

Mitchell, A and Deirdre Logue. 2012 Feminist Art: Exhibition as Horizon. Civil Partnerships? Queer and Feminist Curating, Tate Modern, London UK, 18-20 May

2012

Finding Your Outer Lesbian Feminist Sasquatch: Artist Talk, University of Ottawa, Ottawa ON

2011

Mitchell, A. 2011. Q is For Craft: Deep Lez Crafting in a Material World. 2011. Craft Forward, California College of the Arts, San Francisco CA, 31 March - 3 April

2011

Deep Lez Sasquatch Pussy Cupcakes, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL

2010

Love and Politics: Love is the motive force of every emancipatory politics Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, University of Toronto, Toronto ON

2010

Artist Talk Art Gallery of Peterborough, Peterborough ON

2010

Fierce: Women’s Hot Blooded Video Round Table McMaster Museum of Contemporary Art, Hamilton ON

2010

Fat Activism Artist Talk Soggettiva, Bologna, Italy

2009

Artist Talk University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge AB

2009

Third Wave Feminist Art Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge AB

2009

The Real Ladies Sasquatch Round Table Discussion Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg MB

2009

Artist Talk, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg MB

2009

Artist Talk AKA Artist Run Centre, Saskatoon SK

2009

Deep Lez Craft and Community The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX

2009

Artist Interview with Ann Cvetkovich McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton ON

2009


Current Courses

Term Course Number Section Title Type
Fall/Winter 2023 AP/GWST4524 6.0 A Feminist Graphic Narratives BLEN



My practice as an artist, academic and activist is diverse and unusual. Currently, I run the FAG feminist art gallery as a political hub of queer and feminist cultural production. Most recently, I collaboratively made Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House. I am interested in affect, craft, fatness, sex, intersectionality, practice based research and queer/feminist art.

Degrees

Ph.D., York University
M.A., York University
B.A., York University

Appointments

Faculty of Graduate Studies

Community Contributions

2010- present Co-director of FAG Feminist Art Gallery, Toronto

Research Interests

Gender Issues , Sexuality, Feminist / Queer Art, Queer Studies, Affect Theory, Practice Based Research

Awards

  • Canada Council for the Arts Grant - 2019
  • Ontario Arts Council Grant - 2019
  • Toronto Arts Council Grant - 2018
  • SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant: Designing Crip Futures, Co-Applicant - 2018
  • Ontario Arts Council Grant - 2017
  • Toronto ARts Council Grant - 2017
  • Canada Council for the Arts Grant - 2017
  • SSHRC Connection Grant: Sexuality Studies Summer Institute, Co-Applicant - 2016
  • SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology and Access to Life,Co-Applicant - 2015
  • Ontario Arts Council Grant - 2014
  • Ontario Arts Council Grant - 2012
  • Canada Council for the Arts Grant - 2012
  • Toronto Arts Council Grant - 2012
  • Ontario Arts Council Grant - 2012
  • Canada Council for the Arts- International Residence Program- New York City - 2009

Current Research Projects

FAR

    Summary:

    FAR is a feminist art project situated on 64 acres of conservation-protected, organic farmland in rural Ontario, Canada.

    FAR is an expansive site for queer and feminist artists to come, to live, to conceptualize and produce land art projects alongside the 12 principles of permaculture: observe and interact, catch and store energy, obtain a yield, applying self-regulation and feedback, value renewables, produce no waste, design from patterns to details, integrate don’t segregate, use small slow solutions, use and value diversity, use edges and value the marginal, creatively use, and respond to change (Waddington, ethical.net, 2019). FAR will also serve as a sanctuary and respite for artists and activists wishing to simply develop ideas, plan, write, research, rest and recharge.

    Description:

    Set deliberately outside the conventions and restrictions of traditional gallery, museum, institutional and classroom settings, FAR expands on the intentional, intergenerational and queer feminist community building mandate of the FAG Feminist Art Gallery (Toronto) run by Deirdre Logue and Allyson Mitchell since 2010. While FAG (a 450-square foot garage situated in our backyard) is feminist, it is not a women’s art project; it is equally engaged with gender, race, class, and ability. FAG is an art and political potluck, varied in its effects and actions, but focused in its goal: to realize, enact, and support an alternative artist economy and relation.

    FAG has been a response and a protest, filled with humour, joy, and opportunity, bringing in who and what would not have space otherwise in conventional institutions. We host, we fund, we advocate, we support, we claim. Over the last decade FAG has been home to over 50 artists from all over the world who have come here to craft, publish, create, disseminate and rest. FAG has been seen as a breath of much needed fresh air and an important touchstone in the community. Our work has been featured significantly in feminist history anthologies that are often some of the first cohesively “archived” and published queer feminist histories, including in Desire Change: Contemporary Feminist Art in Canada (2017), edited by Heather Davis (see “A Speculative Manifesto for the Feminist Art Fair International: An Interview with Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue of the Feminist Art Gallery” by Amber Christensen, Lauren Fournier, and Daniella Sanader), Otherwise: Imagining queer feminist histories (2017), edited by Amelia Jones and Erin Silver (see our interview with curator Helena Reckitt), and The Art of Feminism: Images that Shaped the Fight for Equality, 1857-2017 (2018) by Lucinda Gosling, Hilary Robinson and Amy Tobin.

    Continuing to build and keep meaningful space in a hyper-gentrified and intensified city like Toronto has become untenable, and it’s now clearer than ever that a way forward, beyond the Feminist Art Gallery, must be found. While our ethos remains the same, the strategy must adapt.

    Located less than two hours from Toronto and easily accessible via a cross-country train line, bus routes and a main highway, FAR will become part of a constellation of long-practicing artists and curatorial initiatives that have deliberately decentralized from urban settings in order to expand the connections between artists of all generations and locations.

    Project Type: Self-Funded
    Role: Primary

    Start Date:
      Month: Mar   Year: 2021

All Publications


Book Chapters

Publication
Year

Mitchell, A Deep Lez in Jessica Lack (ed) Why Are We Artists? 100 World Art Manifestos
(New York NY: Penguin Classics, 2017): 220-225

2017

Mitchell, A., Deep Lez in David Getsy (ed) Documents in Contemporary Art: Queer
(London UK: White Chapel and Cambridge Mass: MIT Press, 2016): 181-183.

2016

Mitchell, A., D Logue, and H Reckitt, Not At the Beginning and Not At the End. In Otherwise: Imagining Queer Feminist Art Histories, edited by A. Jones and E. Silver, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015): 356-371

2015

Mitchell, A and D Logue, “We Can’t Compete” In Complex Social Change: teaching,
performing, exhibiting, designing, mapping, edited by Josie Mills, (University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, 2015) 67-87.

2015

Mitchell, A Big Judy: Fatness, shame and the hybrid autobiography. In Embodied Politics in Visual Autobiography, edited by S. Brophy and J. Hladki (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014): 75-90

2014

L. Karaian & A Mitchell, Third-Wave Feminisms. In N. Mandell (ed), Feminist Issues, 5th Edition (Toronto: Pearson Education, 2010): 63-86

2010

Mitchell, A, "A Call to Arms", in When Women Rule the World: Judy Chicago in Thread (Toronto: The Textile Museum of Canada, 2008) 15-25, 85-98

2008

L. Karaian & A, Mitchell, Young Feminisms. In N. Mandell (ed), Feminist Issues, 4th Edition (Toronto: Pearson Education, 2005): 62-85

2005

Mitchell, A, “Porky”, in D. Kulick and A. Meneley (eds), Fat: The Anthropology of an Obsession (New York: Penguin, 2004): 211-226

2004

Mitchell, A. & A. Slone. “Fat and Femme, Or Squeezing a Whole Lot of Identity into One Pair of Control Top Nylons”, in C. Brushwood Rose and A. Camilleri (eds), Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2002): 47-57

2002

Turbo Chicks: Talking Young Feminisms, Allyson Mitchell, Lara Karaian and Lisa Rundle, Eds. (Toronto: Sumach Press, 2001) : 340pp. Mitchell, A, L Karainan & L Rundle: "Introduction": 11-24 Mitchell, Allyson: "The Writing's on the Wall: Feminist and Lesbian Graffiti as Cultural Production": 221-232

2001

Books

Publication
Year

Inside Killjoy’s Kastle: Dykey Ghosts, Feminist Monsters and Other Lesbian Hauntings, Cait McKinney and Allyson Mitchell (Vancouver: UBC Press and Toronto: Art Gallery of York University, 2019): 200 pp

2019

I’m Not Myself At All, Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue (Kingston: Agnes Etherington Art Gallery, 2015): 63 pp
(artist catalogue includes essays about the work by Sarah E.K. Smith and Heather Love)

2015

Ladies Sasquatch, Allyson Mitchell (Hamilton:McMaster Museum of Art, 2009): 56 pp. (artist catalogue includes essays about the work by Carla Garnet, Ann Cvetkovich and Josephine Mills) Pages authored by Mitchell = 34 of 56.

2009

Journal Articles

Publication
Year

Mitchell, A., Haunted By Her: Lesbian Feminist Representations and Receptions, Feminist Theory 0(0):1-13. 2019

2019

A. Mitchell, Deirdre Logue & Scott Miller Berry. "Are you Burning: Lizzie Borden's Born in Flames circa 2012" Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory. 23 (1): 52-65. 2013

2013

Conoley, C., A. Mitchell and D. Logue. "Making Space for Utopia, FAG and the Aesthetics of Activism: Christine Conoley interviews Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue" n. paradoxa international feminist art journal. 30(1): 67-76. 2012

2012

Mitchell, A. Deep Lez I Statement. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. 18(1): 18-21. 2011

2011

Mitchell, A. They Notice When Little Sister is Sticking It to Big Brother. Canadian Woman Studies 20/21(4/1): 61-62. 2001.

2001

Mitchell, A. Fat Teen Diary. Fireweed: A Feminist Quarterly of Writing, Politics, Art & Culture, 67(1): 13-17. 2000

2000

Conference Papers

Publication
Year

Mitchell, A. 2013, Hoarding, the Body and Autobiography, Clutter, Collections and Hoarding, University of Western Ontario, 1 March.

2013

Mitchell, A and Deirdre Logue. 2012, Can’t Compete / Won’t Compete: Disengagement as Feminist Art Strategy, University Art Association Canada, Montreal, QC, 2-3 November

2012

Mitchell, A and Deirdre Logue. 2012 Feminist Art Gallery as Anti-Institution. Institutions By Artists, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver BC, 12-14 October

2012

Mitchell, A. 2012 Fat Performance Art as Pedagogy and Subject. American Association of Geographers Annual General Meeting, New York NY, 24-27 February

2012

Mitchell, A. 2011. Fatties Bash Back: Fat Activism and Body Agency. Body Image and Self Esteem: Shades of Grey, National Eating Disorder Information Centre, Toronto ON, 2-3 May (keynote speaker)

2011

Mitchell, A. 2010. The Feminists Are Taking Over. Independent Media Arts Conference, Independent Media Arts Alliance of Canada, Toronto ON, 14-19 June

2010

Mitchell, A. 2007. Craft Your Troubles Away: Strategies for Craft Resistance. NeoCraft Conference, NSCAD University, Halifax NS, 23-24 November

2007

Mitchell, A. 2007. Fat Bodies and Resistance: The Performance Work of Cindy Baker. American Association of Geographers Annual General Meeting, San Francisco CA, 17-21 April

2007

Creative Works

Publication
Year

Intimate Proximities with Madelyne Beckles, Thames Art Gallery, Chatham ON

2019

Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House, with Deirdre Logue, Icebox Project Space, Philadelphia PA

2019

She’s Not Herself At All with Deirdre Logue, Anna Leowens Gallery, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax NS

2018

#SilenceisViolence, with Deirdre Logue, Morgan Sea, Heidi Cho, Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough

2016

Her’s Is Still a Dank Cave: Crawling Towards a Queer Horizon, 24 min, video, 2016, A Mitchell and D Logue

2016

I’m Not Myself At All with Deirdre Logue, Agnes Etherington Art Gallery, Queen’s University, Kingston ON

2015

Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House, with Deirdre Logue, One National Lesbian and Gay Archive at the USC Libraries, Los Angeles, CA

2015

We Can’t Compete with Deirdre Logue, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto ON

2015

Killjoy's Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House, London UK

2014

Killjoy's Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House, Art Gallery of York University, Toronto ON

2013

We Can’t Compete, 5 min, video, 2013, A. Mitchell and D. Logue. Commissioned by Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University.

2013

Cushion to Cat Chin, 3 min, Super8, 2012, A. Mitchell and D Logue. Commissioned by 8 Fest

2012

Creep Lez, Katherine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto ON

2012

Collaborative Exhibition - We Won’t Compete with Deirdre Logue Tate Modern, London UK; Access Gallery, Vancouver BC; Concordia University, Montreal QC

2012

Solo Exhibition Creep Lez, Katherine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto ON

2012

Solo Exhibition - Christmas Scars Me, Niagara Artist Centre, St. Catharines ON

2011

Solo Exhibition - A Girl’s Journey to the Well of Forbidden Knowledge, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto ON

2010

Solo Exhibition - Ladies Sasquatch, Art Gallery of Peterborough, Peterborough ON

2010

Solo Exhibition - Ladies Sasquatch, McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton ON; Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg MB; Lethbridge University Art Gallery, Lethbridge AB

2009

Solo Exhibition - Brain Child, Cambridge Galleries, Cambridge ON; AKA Gallery, Saskatoon SK

2009

Collaborative Exhibition - Animation Art with Martha Colburn Saw Gallery, Ottawa ON

2009

Afghanimation, 5 min, 35mm, 2008, A. Mitchell. Commissioned by CFMDC

2008

Foodie, 15 min, 35mm, 2008, A. Mitchell and F. Smyth

2008

Dyke Pussy, 1 min, video, 2008, A. Mitchell (Commissioned by Pride Toronto).

2008

Solo Exhibition - Brain Child, Union Gallery, Queen’s University, Kingston ON; La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse, Montreal QC

2008

Unca Trans, 4 min, Super 8/video, 2007, A. Mitchell and C. Zeidler

2007

Solo Exhibition - Hungry Purse: The Vagina Dentata In Late Capitalism, The Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto ON

2007

Solo Exhibition - Lady Sasquatch, University of Buffalo Art Gallery, State University of New York, Buffalo NY

2007

Solo Exhibition - Finger of Craft, Khyber Institute, Halifax NS

2007

Serious Fur, Stride Gallery, Calgary AB

2007

Solo Exhibition - Sasquatch Squat, Thrush Holmes Empire, Toronto ON

2007

Solo Exhibtion - Brain Freeze, York Quay Centre, Toronto ON

2007

Melty Kitty, 3 min, Super 8, 2006, A. Mitchell

2006

Solo Exhibition - Hungry Purse, Toronto Alternative Arts Fair International, Toronto ON

2006

Pretty Ugly, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto ON

2006

Tawny and Silverback, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto ON

2006

Defend the Sugar Bush with Andrew Harwood Levine Gallery, Culver City CA

2006

Granny Square Wreck Room with Paul Campbell Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto ON

2006

Feeding the Deer, 2 min, Super 8, 2005, A. Mitchell & P. Vermeersch

2005

Sasquatch Clutch, Toronto Alternative Art Fair International, Toronto ON

2005

Solo Exhibition - Lady Sasquatch, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto ON

2005

Solo Exhibition - Faux Naturelle, Gladstone Hotel Artist Designed Rooms, Toronto ON

2005

Lady Sasquatch with Andrew Harwood and Miuki Madelaire Chelsea Galleria Annex, Miami FL

2005

Granny Square Wreck Room with Paul Campbell, Toronto International Art Fair, Toronto ON

2005

Feels Like a Natural Woman with Whitney Lee The Cecille B Hunt Gallery, Webster University, St Louis MO

2005

Granny Square Wreck Room with Paul Campbell Come Up to My Room Design Show, Toronto ON

2005

Big Trubs, 3 min, Super 8/video, 2004, A. Mitchell

2004

Free! Bake! Sale! 4 min, video, 2004, A. Mitchell (Commissioned by Trinity Square Video)

2004

Solo Exhibition - Deep Lez Craft Den, Toronto Alternative Arts Fair International, Toronto ON

2004

Solo Exhibition - Big Trouble, CBC Atrium, Canadian Art Foundation, Toronto ON

2004

Solo Exhibition - The Fluff Stands Alone, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto ON

2004

Double CHIN Picnic with Christina Zeidler, RM Vaughan, Andrew Harwood Katherine Mulherin Art Projects, Toronto ON

2004

If Anyone Should Happen To Get In My Way, 5 min, 16mm, 2003, A. Mitchell & C. Zeidler

2003

Glitter, 1 min, 16mm, 2003, A. Mitchell & C. Zeidler

2003

Sicker Lover, 1 min, 16mm, 2003, A. Mitchell

2003

Precious Little Tiny Love, 3 min, Super 8/video, 2003, A. Mitchell

2003

Mayo Jar, 3 min, Super 8/Video, 2003. A. Mitchell

2003

Halfway Across Canada with Christina Zeidler The Other Gallery, Obsession Compulsion Collection Symposium Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff AB

2003

Pink-Eyed Pet, 3 min, Super8/Video, 2002, A. Mitchell & A. Vaughn

2002

Frisbee Ya Ya, video installation, 2002, A. Mitchell (Commissioned by Images Festival)

2002

Deliverance From Disaster, Bucky and Fluff’s Craft Factory Paul Petro Gallery, Toronto ON

2002

Flea Market Freak Out, Bucky and Fluff’s Craft Factory Katherine Mulherin Art Projects, Toronto ON

2002

Bon Bon, 4 min, 16mm, 2001, A. Mitchell & A. Vaughn

2001

Video Killed the Rodeo Star, video installation, 2001, A. Mitchell (Commissioned by Images Festival)

2001

Collaborative Exhibition - Rumpus Room, Bucky and Fluff’s Craft Factory Katherine Mulherin Art Projects, Toronto ON

2001

Itchy Ya Ya, 3 min. Super 8/video, 2000, A. Mitchell & A Vaughn

2000

Hair Pie, 3 min. Super 8/video, 2000, A. Mitchell & A Vaughn

2000

My Life in 5 Minutes, 7 min, computer animation, 2000, A. Mitchell (Commissioned by Canadian Broadcast Corporation)

2000

Collaborative Exhibition - Lucky Charms, Bucky and Fluff’s Craft Factory Katherine Mulherin Art Projects, Toronto ON

2000

Candy Kisses, 2.5 min, 16mm, 1999, A. Mitchell

1999

TV Did This To Me, 2.5 min, 16mm, 1999, A. Mitchell

1999

Cupcake, 2.5 min, Super 8/video, 1998, A. Mitchell

1998

Don’t Bug Me, 1 min, 16mm, 1997, A. Mitchell

1997

Chow Down, 3 min, Super8/video, 1997, A. Mitchell

1997

3 Minute Rock Star Compilation, 60 min, Super8/video, 1997, A. Mitchell and J. Farrow

1997

My Very Own After School Special, 5 min, video 1997, A. Mitchell

1997

Bad Brownies, 20 min, video, 1997, A Mitchell

1997

Public Lectures

Publication
Year

FAG Feminist Art Gallery Presentation Ecology of An Art Scene, Canadian Art Foundation, Toronto ON

2013

FAG Feminist Art Gallery Presentation Independent Archives, Singapore, SG

2013

Because I Say It Is: Tools for Feminist Description Obourn Contemporary Art, Toronto ON

2013

Feminist Art Collections Whippersnapper Gallery, Toronto ON

2013

Interview with Filmmaker Barbara Hammer Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto ON

2013

FAG feminist art gallery As Alternative Art Space Musagetes: Big Ideas in Art and Culture, Guelph ON

2013

Artist Talk University of Western Ontario, London ON

2013

Artist Talk Nippising University, North Bay ON

2013

Mitchell, A. 2013, Art Presentation in Feminist Context, Digital Arts Week, ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Singapore, May 7

2013

The Politics of Craft Roundtable, Struts Gallery, Sackville NB

2012

Artist Talk Centre for Innovation in Canadian Culture, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops BC

2012

Mitchell, A and Deirdre Logue. 2012, FAG Feminist Art Gallery: Productive from the Margins, Creating the Periphery: Shifting Geographies in Contemporary Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1 December.

2012

Mitchell, A. 2012 Queer Craft as Activist Strategy. Hand Made Assembly, Strutts Gallery, Sackville NB, 24-27 October

2012

Mitchell, A and Deirdre Logue. 2012 Feminist Art: Exhibition as Horizon. Civil Partnerships? Queer and Feminist Curating, Tate Modern, London UK, 18-20 May

2012

Finding Your Outer Lesbian Feminist Sasquatch: Artist Talk, University of Ottawa, Ottawa ON

2011

Mitchell, A. 2011. Q is For Craft: Deep Lez Crafting in a Material World. 2011. Craft Forward, California College of the Arts, San Francisco CA, 31 March - 3 April

2011

Deep Lez Sasquatch Pussy Cupcakes, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL

2010

Love and Politics: Love is the motive force of every emancipatory politics Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, University of Toronto, Toronto ON

2010

Artist Talk Art Gallery of Peterborough, Peterborough ON

2010

Fierce: Women’s Hot Blooded Video Round Table McMaster Museum of Contemporary Art, Hamilton ON

2010

Fat Activism Artist Talk Soggettiva, Bologna, Italy

2009

Artist Talk University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge AB

2009

Third Wave Feminist Art Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge AB

2009

The Real Ladies Sasquatch Round Table Discussion Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg MB

2009

Artist Talk, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg MB

2009

Artist Talk AKA Artist Run Centre, Saskatoon SK

2009

Deep Lez Craft and Community The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX

2009

Artist Interview with Ann Cvetkovich McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton ON

2009


Current Courses

Term Course Number Section Title Type
Fall/Winter 2023 AP/GWST4524 6.0 A Feminist Graphic Narratives BLEN