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Joanne (Jo) Mitchell works from her studio in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. She has a BA(Hons) in Three-Dimensional Design from Manchester Metropolitan University, and an MA (The Edinburgh Crystal Scholarship) from the University of Wolverhampton. Her practice-based PhD at the University of Sunderland was awarded in 2017. Jo's artworks explore the metaphorical qualities of air and glass, often incorporating the human form. Her practice employs precision-controlled air-entrapment through the innovative use of waterjet cutting and kiln-forming to control the form of bubbles within the internal space of glass, a technique she developed during her doctorate. Her work is currently in the collections of the Shanghai Museum of Glass, China, the National Glass Centre, U.K. and the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung Foundation, Germany. She exhibits nationally and internationally.

 

"Mitchell’s works are simultaneously expansive yet claustrophobic. There is nothing conceited or ostentatious here. Whilst “Deconstructed Being” may deal with the fragmentation of the physical and psychological self, “Legion” explores the collective, the need for communion and conversation yet ultimately addresses the overwhelming sense of alienation in the modern day. These works demand engagement; they invite, then demand the viewer to contemplate and reflect. They are conversation pieces in all contexts of the phrase. 

Glass, even the material itself is a metaphor for the human condition, always fluid in a state of flux and capable of being moulded and shaped. Depending on the external and internal stresses it is both ductile and brittle, robust and fragile. Very much like the psychological self.”

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Aidan Moesby (2016), Curator“An ‘In’ With A Stranger”, A Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre Exhibition, Torfaen, Wales