ARTIST PROFILE
Mitch E. Vicieux (they/them) is a queer cartoonist from Southern Maryland (United States, 1994). Exploring comic arts, moving image, and plush sculpture, their practice investigates the construction of gender & body through visual mass media.
They earned an MFA in Art & Technology at The Ohio State University and a BA in Digital Media from St. Mary's College of Maryland, and have studied animation in Florence, Italy and popular culture theory in Tokyo, Japan.
Currently, Mitch is working as a community-oriented educator at Columbus College of Art & Design while continuing their studio practice at the 700 Bryden creative community.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I was scrubbed and sanitized, prepared and drawn on, sliced and sutured. It’s a lifelong journey to sculpt yourself, through cuts and cardio and recombination. Through this pursuit, I wonder - who is allowed to transform? Why is my metamorphosis taboo when the results are so precious? These musings are ignited by the surgical presence of my transition, and boundaries faced along the way. Bringing form to transitional possibilities, my practice stitches comic arts and plush sculpture together, bearing a brood of limitless bodies.
Working to subvert misgivings around body modification, the plush monsters are ALIVE! I draw comics that become fabric patterns, sew monsters that flatten into inked characters; they live as a perpetual re-conglomerate. In the stitching of seams and injection of stuffing, these characters celebrate body modification as a political, visibly queer endeavour.
Recombinant sensibilities define my practice; ceaseless acts of mixing disparate worlds. Amalgamations are forced into our reality, crawling into space where bodies exist. I pluck materials and concepts from different categories, removing their original context to seam them together. This tactile practice requires cartoon whimsy alongside surgical precision, transitioning creatures through phases of sculptural and animated existence – feeling the cut and pulling the stitch.
Education
The Ohio State University, MFA, Art & Technology 2021
Recipient of Graduate Teaching Fellowship
St. Mary’s College of Maryland, BA, Studio Art - Digital Media, Film & Media Studies Minor 2017
Magna Cum Laude, Dean’s List
College of Southern Maryland, Studio Management Certificate 2017
Dean’s List
Education Abroad
University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan. Pop Culture Field Study 2019
Accademia Italiana, Florence, Italy. Animation & Design Study 2016
Select Exhibitions
SOLO
WITH YOU/THEY LIVE!, Hopkins Hall Gallery. Columbus, OH (June 2021)
r e s i s t w a v e: The Aesthetic of Breaking Barriers, Montgomery Hall. St.Mary’s City, MD 2017
Leaving Normal Symposium Viewing, Cole Cinema. St. Mary’s City, MD 2017
Working Observational, Candy Cummings Gallery. Lexington Park, MD 2016
GROUP
Franklinton Pride Film Festival, ROY G BIV Gallery. Columbus, OH
Proximity, Urban Art Space. Columbus, OH 2021
Fergus Scholarship Exhibition, Urban Art Space. Columbus, OH 2021
Louisiana LGBT+ Film Festival, LGBT Center of New Orleans. New Orleans, LA 2020
Giving OUT, Campus Pride. Charlotte, NC 2020
Cloud Crusher, Hopkins Hall Gallery. Columbus, OH 2020
Mad Royal Film Festival, Wexner Center for the Arts Film & Video Theatre. Columbus, OH 2020
East-Central ACDA Conference Screening, Western Michigan University. Kalamazoo, MI 2020
Golden Hour, The Fort. Columbus, OH 2019
Chromatic: LGBTQ+ Experience in Columbus, Wild Goose Creative. Columbus, OH 2019
No Evil Eye: Radical Microcinema, Wexner Center for the Arts. Columbus, OH 2020
COMPAS Art & Technology Showcase, STEAM Factory. Columbus, OH 2019
Ohio Shorts, Wexner Center for the Arts. Columbus, OH 2019
Threads., Hopkins Hall Gallery. Columbus, OH 2019
Your Arts Mag: Pride Exhibition, 934 Gallery. Columbus, OH 2018
Columbus Moving Image Art Review, Hagerty Cinema. Columbus, OH 2018
Awards
John Fergus Family Scholarship, Fergus Foundation 2021
Nominee for the Graduate Associate Teaching Award, The Drake Institute 2021
Society of Fellows Graduate Research Grant, Global Arts + Humanities 2020
Tech Hub Student Projects Grant, Tech Hub 2020
Art & Technology Award, COMPAS Art Educators 2019
LGBTQ Advocacy Award, Academic Services at St. Mary’s College of Maryland 2018
Rhoda-Stark Memorial Award for Queer Activism, Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at St. Mary’s College of Maryland 2018
Joanne Klein Memorial Award for Activist Filmmaking, Department of Theater, Film, and Media Studies at St. Mary’s College of Maryland 2018
St. Mary’s Professional Development Fellowship, Department of Computer Science at St. Mary’s College of Maryland 2017
St. Mary’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Department of Theater, Film, and Media Studies at St. Mary’s College of Maryland 2017
Education Merit Grant, St. Mary’s College of Maryland 2015
Academic Grant for Continuing Education Scholars, St. Mary’s College of Maryland 2015