Mitch Griffiths ”Realisms” at the State Hermitage Museum

If there’s one building in St Petersburg quite unlike any other it’s the State Hermitage Museum. Housed within the glittering architecture of The Winter Palace, this impressive building was once the home to the tsars of Russia, its opulence now transformed into one of the most important galleries in the world.

Consistently hosting exhibitions of artworks by only the most promising modern talents, the museum has recently joined forces with London’s Halcyon Gallery to showcase a selection of works by the esteemed UK artist Mitch Griffiths, a hyper realist painter whose works have a distinctly poignant series of messages.

Having exhibited at the Halcyon Gallery before with a series of pieces entitled Enduring Freedom, Mitch Griffiths has grown in popularity due to his portraits that welcome viewers into his version of reality, the photo realism of the subjects creating a sort of dark fantasy that makes his messages really stand out.

“Many people say my paintings look photo-realist” says Mitch, “but it’s not what I’m trying to achieve. I’m trying to make the viewer enter MY reality.”

Characterised by their striking use of oil paints and their tableaux that echoes those of the Old Masters of art, Griffiths’ works provide a haunting and often very gritty view of the world, highlighting his own fears of the modern day and making us address our own. This is especially true of the selection of signature works that the artist is showcasing in the esteemed Russian museum, an honour that has rarely been granted to artists from the UK before.

Handpicked by the Curator and Director of the Contemporary Art Department of the State Hermitage Museum, Dimitri Ozerkov, these works mark a seminal part of Griffiths’ career, showing his ascension to a hugely exclusive place on the international market following his successful exhibition at the Halcyon Gallery in 2015.

Containing two diptychs and two triptychs among others, this new exhibition in Russia’s most esteemed gallery covers the whole span of Griffiths’ work, including notable pieces from his ode to corporate greed (21^st Century Boy, 2006) pieces that reflect the agony and heroism of those affected by wartime and how the experience marks their souls (Finest Hour, 2015) and even some of his new, never before seen works from this year that explore the current refugee crisis and the myriad feelings that accompany the urgency of the situation (The Things They Carried, 2016).

Perhaps what is most striking about Mitch’s work is his incredible use of light. By bringing the canvas to life with traditional chiaroscuro (a sharp contrast between dark and light) Griffiths uses one singular light source in his paintings to both highlight and shape the figures, illuminating them and their messages to act as a mirror to contemporary society.

Read the full article: http://www.luxworldwide.com/magazine/lifestyle/mitch-griffiths-realisms-state-hermitage-museum/