Artist's Statement

Nothing lasts forever, but maybe the impermanence of all things is unfairly colored by our mortality: we live and then we die, existing and suddenly not. Maybe rather than emerging into being and disappearing from history, all things fade in and out of view, oscillating between being and not. My work seeks to express this oscillation by reinvigorating historical practices, objects, and stories using new media and a material-based approach.

Every project revolves around a metaphorically relevant material. I draw archeological objects using excavated matter as medium, I reproduce found photographs using the technology of their time, and I record found sounds on magnetic tape and other obsolete platforms. By maintaining a materialistic fidelity to anachronistic source material, I gently swing the past towards the present. The addition of new media, on the other hand, situates the past in the present. My archeological drawings mimic comic book compositions, my photogravures are digitally manipulated before printing, and my recorded sounds are generatively altered by computer programs. This mingling of contemporary technology and historical material and practices situates the old within the new and results in work that appears to emerge from the past, live in the present, and teeters on the precipice of swinging back into obscurity. This practice aspires to optimistically reimagine our ideas about our own permeance.

Artist's Biography

Nick Mittelstead is an artist based in Philadelphia. He received an MFA in Studio Art and an MA in History and Theory of Contemporary Art from The San Francisco Art Institute and a BS in Studio Art from Skidmore College. He has exhibited work in the US and internationally.

Education

2019
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
MA, History and Theory of Contemporary Art, Honors

2018
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
MFA, Studio Art

2012
Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
BS, Studio Art, Cum Laude

Awards & Honors

2019
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
Distinction in Scholarship, Master of Arts Thesis Award

2017
San Francisco, CA
Edwin Anthony & Adalaine Boudreaux Cadogan Scholar

Residencies

2020
Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Hyattsville, MD
^{Keyholder Residency}

2017

Mudhouse Residency, Agio Ionnis, Crete
Resident Artist

Professional Experience

2021
The Mudhouse Residency, Agios Ioannis, Crete
Instructor, Summer

Selected Exhibitions

Group‍

2022
Elements, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Brooklyn, NY

Emerging Artists 2022, Dodomu Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2021
SPRING/BREAK Art Fair, New York, NY

INNOVATIONS, ISEA, Macinac Island, MI

Mudhouse Closing Exhibition, Crete, Greece

Black & White, Fusion Art, online exhibition

Printin', St. Louis Artists' Guild, St. Louis, MO

2020
Objects, CICA Museum, South Korea

2019
Clay & Wood, West Hartford Art League, West Hartford, CT
Best in Show

SFAI MFA Exhibition, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA

2018
SFAI MFA Exhibition, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA

2017
The Murphy Cadogan Award Show, SOMArts, San Francisco, CA

Lightly Heavy, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA

On Blue, Swell Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Assembling/Deassembling, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2015
Relief Efforts, Shoestring Press, New York, NY