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.
Degrees
Ph.D., York UniversityM.A., York University
B.A., York University
Appointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesCommunity Contributions
2010- present Co-director of FAG Feminist Art Gallery, Toronto
Research Interests
- 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
-
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.
Start Date:
- Month: Mar Year: 2021
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
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)
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.
Mitchell, A Deep Lez in Jessica Lack (ed) Why Are We Artists? 100 World Art Manifestos
(New York NY: Penguin Classics, 2017): 220-225
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.
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
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.
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
L. Karaian & A Mitchell, Third-Wave Feminisms. In N. Mandell (ed), Feminist Issues, 5th Edition (Toronto: Pearson Education, 2010): 63-86
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
L. Karaian & A, Mitchell, Young Feminisms. In N. Mandell (ed), Feminist Issues, 4th Edition (Toronto: Pearson Education, 2005): 62-85
Mitchell, A, “Porky”, in D. Kulick and A. Meneley (eds), Fat: The Anthropology of an Obsession (New York: Penguin, 2004): 211-226
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
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
Mitchell, A., Haunted By Her: Lesbian Feminist Representations and Receptions, Feminist Theory 0(0):1-13. 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
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
Mitchell, A. Deep Lez I Statement. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. 18(1): 18-21. 2011
Mitchell, A. They Notice When Little Sister is Sticking It to Big Brother. Canadian Woman Studies 20/21(4/1): 61-62. 2001.
Mitchell, A. Fat Teen Diary. Fireweed: A Feminist Quarterly of Writing, Politics, Art & Culture, 67(1): 13-17. 2000
Mitchell, A. 2013, Hoarding, the Body and Autobiography, Clutter, Collections and Hoarding, University of Western Ontario, 1 March.
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
Mitchell, A and Deirdre Logue. 2012 Feminist Art Gallery as Anti-Institution. Institutions By Artists, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver BC, 12-14 October
Mitchell, A. 2012 Fat Performance Art as Pedagogy and Subject. American Association of Geographers Annual General Meeting, New York NY, 24-27 February
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)
Mitchell, A. 2010. The Feminists Are Taking Over. Independent Media Arts Conference, Independent Media Arts Alliance of Canada, Toronto ON, 14-19 June
Mitchell, A. 2007. Craft Your Troubles Away: Strategies for Craft Resistance. NeoCraft Conference, NSCAD University, Halifax NS, 23-24 November
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
Intimate Proximities with Madelyne Beckles, Thames Art Gallery, Chatham ON
Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House, with Deirdre Logue, Icebox Project Space, Philadelphia PA
She’s Not Herself At All with Deirdre Logue, Anna Leowens Gallery, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax NS
#SilenceisViolence, with Deirdre Logue, Morgan Sea, Heidi Cho, Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough
Her’s Is Still a Dank Cave: Crawling Towards a Queer Horizon, 24 min, video, 2016, A Mitchell and D Logue
I’m Not Myself At All with Deirdre Logue, Agnes Etherington Art Gallery, Queen’s University, Kingston ON
Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House, with Deirdre Logue, One National Lesbian and Gay Archive at the USC Libraries, Los Angeles, CA
We Can’t Compete with Deirdre Logue, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto ON
Killjoy's Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House, London UK
Killjoy's Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House, Art Gallery of York University, Toronto ON
We Can’t Compete, 5 min, video, 2013, A. Mitchell and D. Logue. Commissioned by Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University.
Cushion to Cat Chin, 3 min, Super8, 2012, A. Mitchell and D Logue. Commissioned by 8 Fest
Creep Lez, Katherine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto ON
Collaborative Exhibition - We Won’t Compete with Deirdre Logue Tate Modern, London UK; Access Gallery, Vancouver BC; Concordia University, Montreal QC
Solo Exhibition Creep Lez, Katherine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto ON
Solo Exhibition - Christmas Scars Me, Niagara Artist Centre, St. Catharines ON
Solo Exhibition - A Girl’s Journey to the Well of Forbidden Knowledge, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto ON
Solo Exhibition - Ladies Sasquatch, Art Gallery of Peterborough, Peterborough ON
Solo Exhibition - Ladies Sasquatch, McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton ON; Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg MB; Lethbridge University Art Gallery, Lethbridge AB
Solo Exhibition - Brain Child, Cambridge Galleries, Cambridge ON; AKA Gallery, Saskatoon SK
Collaborative Exhibition - Animation Art with Martha Colburn Saw Gallery, Ottawa ON
Afghanimation, 5 min, 35mm, 2008, A. Mitchell. Commissioned by CFMDC
Foodie, 15 min, 35mm, 2008, A. Mitchell and F. Smyth
Dyke Pussy, 1 min, video, 2008, A. Mitchell (Commissioned by Pride Toronto).
Solo Exhibition - Brain Child, Union Gallery, Queen’s University, Kingston ON; La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse, Montreal QC
Unca Trans, 4 min, Super 8/video, 2007, A. Mitchell and C. Zeidler
Solo Exhibition - Hungry Purse: The Vagina Dentata In Late Capitalism, The Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto ON
Solo Exhibition - Lady Sasquatch, University of Buffalo Art Gallery, State University of New York, Buffalo NY
Solo Exhibition - Finger of Craft, Khyber Institute, Halifax NS
Serious Fur, Stride Gallery, Calgary AB
Solo Exhibition - Sasquatch Squat, Thrush Holmes Empire, Toronto ON
Solo Exhibtion - Brain Freeze, York Quay Centre, Toronto ON
Melty Kitty, 3 min, Super 8, 2006, A. Mitchell
Solo Exhibition - Hungry Purse, Toronto Alternative Arts Fair International, Toronto ON
Pretty Ugly, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto ON
Tawny and Silverback, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto ON
Defend the Sugar Bush with Andrew Harwood Levine Gallery, Culver City CA
Granny Square Wreck Room with Paul Campbell Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto ON
Feeding the Deer, 2 min, Super 8, 2005, A. Mitchell & P. Vermeersch
Sasquatch Clutch, Toronto Alternative Art Fair International, Toronto ON
Solo Exhibition - Lady Sasquatch, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto ON
Solo Exhibition - Faux Naturelle, Gladstone Hotel Artist Designed Rooms, Toronto ON
Lady Sasquatch with Andrew Harwood and Miuki Madelaire Chelsea Galleria Annex, Miami FL
Granny Square Wreck Room with Paul Campbell, Toronto International Art Fair, Toronto ON
Feels Like a Natural Woman with Whitney Lee The Cecille B Hunt Gallery, Webster University, St Louis MO
Granny Square Wreck Room with Paul Campbell Come Up to My Room Design Show, Toronto ON
Big Trubs, 3 min, Super 8/video, 2004, A. Mitchell
Free! Bake! Sale! 4 min, video, 2004, A. Mitchell (Commissioned by Trinity Square Video)
Solo Exhibition - Deep Lez Craft Den, Toronto Alternative Arts Fair International, Toronto ON
Solo Exhibition - Big Trouble, CBC Atrium, Canadian Art Foundation, Toronto ON
Solo Exhibition - The Fluff Stands Alone, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto ON
Double CHIN Picnic with Christina Zeidler, RM Vaughan, Andrew Harwood Katherine Mulherin Art Projects, Toronto ON
If Anyone Should Happen To Get In My Way, 5 min, 16mm, 2003, A. Mitchell & C. Zeidler
Glitter, 1 min, 16mm, 2003, A. Mitchell & C. Zeidler
Sicker Lover, 1 min, 16mm, 2003, A. Mitchell
Precious Little Tiny Love, 3 min, Super 8/video, 2003, A. Mitchell
Mayo Jar, 3 min, Super 8/Video, 2003. A. Mitchell
Halfway Across Canada with Christina Zeidler The Other Gallery, Obsession Compulsion Collection Symposium Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff AB
Pink-Eyed Pet, 3 min, Super8/Video, 2002, A. Mitchell & A. Vaughn
Frisbee Ya Ya, video installation, 2002, A. Mitchell (Commissioned by Images Festival)
Deliverance From Disaster, Bucky and Fluff’s Craft Factory Paul Petro Gallery, Toronto ON
Flea Market Freak Out, Bucky and Fluff’s Craft Factory Katherine Mulherin Art Projects, Toronto ON
Bon Bon, 4 min, 16mm, 2001, A. Mitchell & A. Vaughn
Video Killed the Rodeo Star, video installation, 2001, A. Mitchell (Commissioned by Images Festival)
Collaborative Exhibition - Rumpus Room, Bucky and Fluff’s Craft Factory Katherine Mulherin Art Projects, Toronto ON
Itchy Ya Ya, 3 min. Super 8/video, 2000, A. Mitchell & A Vaughn
Hair Pie, 3 min. Super 8/video, 2000, A. Mitchell & A Vaughn
My Life in 5 Minutes, 7 min, computer animation, 2000, A. Mitchell (Commissioned by Canadian Broadcast Corporation)
Collaborative Exhibition - Lucky Charms, Bucky and Fluff’s Craft Factory Katherine Mulherin Art Projects, Toronto ON
Candy Kisses, 2.5 min, 16mm, 1999, A. Mitchell
TV Did This To Me, 2.5 min, 16mm, 1999, A. Mitchell
Cupcake, 2.5 min, Super 8/video, 1998, A. Mitchell
Don’t Bug Me, 1 min, 16mm, 1997, A. Mitchell
Chow Down, 3 min, Super8/video, 1997, A. Mitchell
3 Minute Rock Star Compilation, 60 min, Super8/video, 1997, A. Mitchell and J. Farrow
My Very Own After School Special, 5 min, video 1997, A. Mitchell
Bad Brownies, 20 min, video, 1997, A Mitchell
FAG Feminist Art Gallery Presentation Ecology of An Art Scene, Canadian Art Foundation, Toronto ON
FAG Feminist Art Gallery Presentation Independent Archives, Singapore, SG
Because I Say It Is: Tools for Feminist Description Obourn Contemporary Art, Toronto ON
Feminist Art Collections Whippersnapper Gallery, Toronto ON
Interview with Filmmaker Barbara Hammer Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto ON
FAG feminist art gallery As Alternative Art Space Musagetes: Big Ideas in Art and Culture, Guelph ON
Artist Talk University of Western Ontario, London ON
Artist Talk Nippising University, North Bay ON
Mitchell, A. 2013, Art Presentation in Feminist Context, Digital Arts Week, ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Singapore, May 7
The Politics of Craft Roundtable, Struts Gallery, Sackville NB
Artist Talk Centre for Innovation in Canadian Culture, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops BC
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.
Mitchell, A. 2012 Queer Craft as Activist Strategy. Hand Made Assembly, Strutts Gallery, Sackville NB, 24-27 October
Mitchell, A and Deirdre Logue. 2012 Feminist Art: Exhibition as Horizon. Civil Partnerships? Queer and Feminist Curating, Tate Modern, London UK, 18-20 May
Finding Your Outer Lesbian Feminist Sasquatch: Artist Talk, University of Ottawa, Ottawa ON
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
Deep Lez Sasquatch Pussy Cupcakes, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL
Love and Politics: Love is the motive force of every emancipatory politics Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, University of Toronto, Toronto ON
Artist Talk Art Gallery of Peterborough, Peterborough ON
Fierce: Women’s Hot Blooded Video Round Table McMaster Museum of Contemporary Art, Hamilton ON
Fat Activism Artist Talk Soggettiva, Bologna, Italy
Artist Talk University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge AB
Third Wave Feminist Art Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge AB
The Real Ladies Sasquatch Round Table Discussion Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg MB
Artist Talk, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg MB
Artist Talk AKA Artist Run Centre, Saskatoon SK
Deep Lez Craft and Community The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX
Artist Interview with Ann Cvetkovich McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton ON
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2024 | AP/GWST4513 3.0 | A | Feminism and Food | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/GWST4524 6.0 | A | Feminist Graphic Narratives | BLEN |
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/GWST4524 6.0 | A | Feminist Graphic Narratives | BLEN |
| Winter 2025 | GS/GFWS6917 3.0 | M | Feminist Fat Studies | SEMR |
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 UniversityM.A., York University
B.A., York University
Appointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesCommunity Contributions
2010- present Co-director of FAG Feminist Art Gallery, Toronto
Research Interests
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
-
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-FundedRole: Primary
Start Date:
- Month: Mar Year: 2021
All Publications
Mitchell, A Deep Lez in Jessica Lack (ed) Why Are We Artists? 100 World Art Manifestos
(New York NY: Penguin Classics, 2017): 220-225
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.
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
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.
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
L. Karaian & A Mitchell, Third-Wave Feminisms. In N. Mandell (ed), Feminist Issues, 5th Edition (Toronto: Pearson Education, 2010): 63-86
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
L. Karaian & A, Mitchell, Young Feminisms. In N. Mandell (ed), Feminist Issues, 4th Edition (Toronto: Pearson Education, 2005): 62-85
Mitchell, A, “Porky”, in D. Kulick and A. Meneley (eds), Fat: The Anthropology of an Obsession (New York: Penguin, 2004): 211-226
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
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
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
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)
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.
Mitchell, A., Haunted By Her: Lesbian Feminist Representations and Receptions, Feminist Theory 0(0):1-13. 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
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
Mitchell, A. Deep Lez I Statement. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. 18(1): 18-21. 2011
Mitchell, A. They Notice When Little Sister is Sticking It to Big Brother. Canadian Woman Studies 20/21(4/1): 61-62. 2001.
Mitchell, A. Fat Teen Diary. Fireweed: A Feminist Quarterly of Writing, Politics, Art & Culture, 67(1): 13-17. 2000
Mitchell, A. 2013, Hoarding, the Body and Autobiography, Clutter, Collections and Hoarding, University of Western Ontario, 1 March.
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
Mitchell, A and Deirdre Logue. 2012 Feminist Art Gallery as Anti-Institution. Institutions By Artists, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver BC, 12-14 October
Mitchell, A. 2012 Fat Performance Art as Pedagogy and Subject. American Association of Geographers Annual General Meeting, New York NY, 24-27 February
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)
Mitchell, A. 2010. The Feminists Are Taking Over. Independent Media Arts Conference, Independent Media Arts Alliance of Canada, Toronto ON, 14-19 June
Mitchell, A. 2007. Craft Your Troubles Away: Strategies for Craft Resistance. NeoCraft Conference, NSCAD University, Halifax NS, 23-24 November
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
Intimate Proximities with Madelyne Beckles, Thames Art Gallery, Chatham ON
Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House, with Deirdre Logue, Icebox Project Space, Philadelphia PA
She’s Not Herself At All with Deirdre Logue, Anna Leowens Gallery, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax NS
#SilenceisViolence, with Deirdre Logue, Morgan Sea, Heidi Cho, Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough
Her’s Is Still a Dank Cave: Crawling Towards a Queer Horizon, 24 min, video, 2016, A Mitchell and D Logue
I’m Not Myself At All with Deirdre Logue, Agnes Etherington Art Gallery, Queen’s University, Kingston ON
Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House, with Deirdre Logue, One National Lesbian and Gay Archive at the USC Libraries, Los Angeles, CA
We Can’t Compete with Deirdre Logue, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto ON
Killjoy's Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House, London UK
Killjoy's Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House, Art Gallery of York University, Toronto ON
We Can’t Compete, 5 min, video, 2013, A. Mitchell and D. Logue. Commissioned by Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University.
Cushion to Cat Chin, 3 min, Super8, 2012, A. Mitchell and D Logue. Commissioned by 8 Fest
Creep Lez, Katherine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto ON
Collaborative Exhibition - We Won’t Compete with Deirdre Logue Tate Modern, London UK; Access Gallery, Vancouver BC; Concordia University, Montreal QC
Solo Exhibition Creep Lez, Katherine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto ON
Solo Exhibition - Christmas Scars Me, Niagara Artist Centre, St. Catharines ON
Solo Exhibition - A Girl’s Journey to the Well of Forbidden Knowledge, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto ON
Solo Exhibition - Ladies Sasquatch, Art Gallery of Peterborough, Peterborough ON
Solo Exhibition - Ladies Sasquatch, McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton ON; Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg MB; Lethbridge University Art Gallery, Lethbridge AB
Solo Exhibition - Brain Child, Cambridge Galleries, Cambridge ON; AKA Gallery, Saskatoon SK
Collaborative Exhibition - Animation Art with Martha Colburn Saw Gallery, Ottawa ON
Afghanimation, 5 min, 35mm, 2008, A. Mitchell. Commissioned by CFMDC
Foodie, 15 min, 35mm, 2008, A. Mitchell and F. Smyth
Dyke Pussy, 1 min, video, 2008, A. Mitchell (Commissioned by Pride Toronto).
Solo Exhibition - Brain Child, Union Gallery, Queen’s University, Kingston ON; La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse, Montreal QC
Unca Trans, 4 min, Super 8/video, 2007, A. Mitchell and C. Zeidler
Solo Exhibition - Hungry Purse: The Vagina Dentata In Late Capitalism, The Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto ON
Solo Exhibition - Lady Sasquatch, University of Buffalo Art Gallery, State University of New York, Buffalo NY
Solo Exhibition - Finger of Craft, Khyber Institute, Halifax NS
Serious Fur, Stride Gallery, Calgary AB
Solo Exhibition - Sasquatch Squat, Thrush Holmes Empire, Toronto ON
Solo Exhibtion - Brain Freeze, York Quay Centre, Toronto ON
Melty Kitty, 3 min, Super 8, 2006, A. Mitchell
Solo Exhibition - Hungry Purse, Toronto Alternative Arts Fair International, Toronto ON
Pretty Ugly, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto ON
Tawny and Silverback, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto ON
Defend the Sugar Bush with Andrew Harwood Levine Gallery, Culver City CA
Granny Square Wreck Room with Paul Campbell Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto ON
Feeding the Deer, 2 min, Super 8, 2005, A. Mitchell & P. Vermeersch
Sasquatch Clutch, Toronto Alternative Art Fair International, Toronto ON
Solo Exhibition - Lady Sasquatch, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto ON
Solo Exhibition - Faux Naturelle, Gladstone Hotel Artist Designed Rooms, Toronto ON
Lady Sasquatch with Andrew Harwood and Miuki Madelaire Chelsea Galleria Annex, Miami FL
Granny Square Wreck Room with Paul Campbell, Toronto International Art Fair, Toronto ON
Feels Like a Natural Woman with Whitney Lee The Cecille B Hunt Gallery, Webster University, St Louis MO
Granny Square Wreck Room with Paul Campbell Come Up to My Room Design Show, Toronto ON
Big Trubs, 3 min, Super 8/video, 2004, A. Mitchell
Free! Bake! Sale! 4 min, video, 2004, A. Mitchell (Commissioned by Trinity Square Video)
Solo Exhibition - Deep Lez Craft Den, Toronto Alternative Arts Fair International, Toronto ON
Solo Exhibition - Big Trouble, CBC Atrium, Canadian Art Foundation, Toronto ON
Solo Exhibition - The Fluff Stands Alone, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto ON
Double CHIN Picnic with Christina Zeidler, RM Vaughan, Andrew Harwood Katherine Mulherin Art Projects, Toronto ON
If Anyone Should Happen To Get In My Way, 5 min, 16mm, 2003, A. Mitchell & C. Zeidler
Glitter, 1 min, 16mm, 2003, A. Mitchell & C. Zeidler
Sicker Lover, 1 min, 16mm, 2003, A. Mitchell
Precious Little Tiny Love, 3 min, Super 8/video, 2003, A. Mitchell
Mayo Jar, 3 min, Super 8/Video, 2003. A. Mitchell
Halfway Across Canada with Christina Zeidler The Other Gallery, Obsession Compulsion Collection Symposium Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff AB
Pink-Eyed Pet, 3 min, Super8/Video, 2002, A. Mitchell & A. Vaughn
Frisbee Ya Ya, video installation, 2002, A. Mitchell (Commissioned by Images Festival)
Deliverance From Disaster, Bucky and Fluff’s Craft Factory Paul Petro Gallery, Toronto ON
Flea Market Freak Out, Bucky and Fluff’s Craft Factory Katherine Mulherin Art Projects, Toronto ON
Bon Bon, 4 min, 16mm, 2001, A. Mitchell & A. Vaughn
Video Killed the Rodeo Star, video installation, 2001, A. Mitchell (Commissioned by Images Festival)
Collaborative Exhibition - Rumpus Room, Bucky and Fluff’s Craft Factory Katherine Mulherin Art Projects, Toronto ON
Itchy Ya Ya, 3 min. Super 8/video, 2000, A. Mitchell & A Vaughn
Hair Pie, 3 min. Super 8/video, 2000, A. Mitchell & A Vaughn
My Life in 5 Minutes, 7 min, computer animation, 2000, A. Mitchell (Commissioned by Canadian Broadcast Corporation)
Collaborative Exhibition - Lucky Charms, Bucky and Fluff’s Craft Factory Katherine Mulherin Art Projects, Toronto ON
Candy Kisses, 2.5 min, 16mm, 1999, A. Mitchell
TV Did This To Me, 2.5 min, 16mm, 1999, A. Mitchell
Cupcake, 2.5 min, Super 8/video, 1998, A. Mitchell
Don’t Bug Me, 1 min, 16mm, 1997, A. Mitchell
Chow Down, 3 min, Super8/video, 1997, A. Mitchell
3 Minute Rock Star Compilation, 60 min, Super8/video, 1997, A. Mitchell and J. Farrow
My Very Own After School Special, 5 min, video 1997, A. Mitchell
Bad Brownies, 20 min, video, 1997, A Mitchell
FAG Feminist Art Gallery Presentation Ecology of An Art Scene, Canadian Art Foundation, Toronto ON
FAG Feminist Art Gallery Presentation Independent Archives, Singapore, SG
Because I Say It Is: Tools for Feminist Description Obourn Contemporary Art, Toronto ON
Feminist Art Collections Whippersnapper Gallery, Toronto ON
Interview with Filmmaker Barbara Hammer Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto ON
FAG feminist art gallery As Alternative Art Space Musagetes: Big Ideas in Art and Culture, Guelph ON
Artist Talk University of Western Ontario, London ON
Artist Talk Nippising University, North Bay ON
Mitchell, A. 2013, Art Presentation in Feminist Context, Digital Arts Week, ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Singapore, May 7
The Politics of Craft Roundtable, Struts Gallery, Sackville NB
Artist Talk Centre for Innovation in Canadian Culture, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops BC
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.
Mitchell, A. 2012 Queer Craft as Activist Strategy. Hand Made Assembly, Strutts Gallery, Sackville NB, 24-27 October
Mitchell, A and Deirdre Logue. 2012 Feminist Art: Exhibition as Horizon. Civil Partnerships? Queer and Feminist Curating, Tate Modern, London UK, 18-20 May
Finding Your Outer Lesbian Feminist Sasquatch: Artist Talk, University of Ottawa, Ottawa ON
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
Deep Lez Sasquatch Pussy Cupcakes, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL
Love and Politics: Love is the motive force of every emancipatory politics Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, University of Toronto, Toronto ON
Artist Talk Art Gallery of Peterborough, Peterborough ON
Fierce: Women’s Hot Blooded Video Round Table McMaster Museum of Contemporary Art, Hamilton ON
Fat Activism Artist Talk Soggettiva, Bologna, Italy
Artist Talk University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge AB
Third Wave Feminist Art Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge AB
The Real Ladies Sasquatch Round Table Discussion Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg MB
Artist Talk, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg MB
Artist Talk AKA Artist Run Centre, Saskatoon SK
Deep Lez Craft and Community The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX
Artist Interview with Ann Cvetkovich McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton ON
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2024 | AP/GWST4513 3.0 | A | Feminism and Food | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/GWST4524 6.0 | A | Feminist Graphic Narratives | BLEN |
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/GWST4524 6.0 | A | Feminist Graphic Narratives | BLEN |
| Winter 2025 | GS/GFWS6917 3.0 | M | Feminist Fat Studies | SEMR |
