About Kevin Mutch

Kevin Mutch is a New York City based graphic novelist, digital artist, and painter. Originally from Winnipeg, Canada, Mutch received his MFA in painting from the University of Victoria in 1990.

He showed his paintings and drawings extensively in the Canadian “parallel gallery” scene in the early 1990’s and, because of the often controversial nature of his work, was known as the “bad boy of Winnipeg art”. In 1992 his groundbreaking “sampled” comic book Captain Adam was published by Plug-In Editions and distributed internationally by Vortex.

During this time, Mutch worked as the art director for Crash Test Dummies, a Winnipeg rock group which achieved enormous international success. He designed their album covers, logos, and posters and and directed several of their videos. He was nominated twice for Juno awards (the Canadian Grammy) and received the Canadian “people’s choice” Casby award for best album art for 1991.

In 1995, Mutch moved to Los Angeles to co-found Liquid Image, a digital compositing business. Liquid Image produced elaborate digital portraits for many celebrities, corporations and wealthy clients and created composite photographs for use in many films. Taking advantage of the state-of-the-art imaging facilities at his disposal, Mutch began creating highly manipulated digital artwork based on photographs of toys.

In 1997, Mutch and his partner moved Liquid Image to the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan. In 1999, Mutch organized PODshow, a seminal exhibition of digital art held at the Vibrant Gallery in SoHo, and followed this in 2000 with the creation of PODgallery, an online gallery for selling fine art prints “on demand”. Today, PODgallery and its sister site ArtLexis represent over 300 of the world’s best digital artists, cartoonists and illustrators.

Since 2000, Mutch has continued to create digital art (his work has been shown in the New York Digital Salon as well as many New York City, Canadian and European galleries) but has also returned to painting and cartooning. In 2005, Mutch co-founded Blurred Vision, a well received anthology series of experimental comics which recently released its third volume. He is currently working on Fantastic Life, a graphic novel about punk rockers, zombies and quantum mechanics which will be published in 2009.

Besides his own art, comics and publishing interests, Mutch continues to work as a high-end digital artist in New York City. He is currently a Senior Digital Artist for RR Donnelley at Sony Music in Manhattan, where he produces images for many of the best-known musicians in the world.

Resume

Education:

1990 M.F.A. University of Victoria, Canada
1988 B.F.A. University of Manitoba, Canada

Solo/Two Person Exhibitions:

2000 Kevin Mutch and Roland Brener, Spectra Gallery, New York City
1994 Expression, Access Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
1993 Our World in Time and Space, Plug-In Gallery, Winnipeg, Canada
1990 Kevin Mutch, Ace Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Canada

Selected Group Exhibitions:

2006 Manipulating the Found Body, Lab Gallery, New York City
2005 Strange Adventures, Lab Gallery, New York City
2003 Art from ArtLexis, Levall Gallery, Novosibirsk, Russia
2002 Young Digital Artists, Artlink Gallery, New York City
2001 Art Push: Exhibition on Pushkinskaya 10, St. Petersburg, Russia
2000 The Eighth New York Digital Salon, SVA, New York City
1999 The People’s Plastic Princess, Banff Center, Canada
1999 PODshow, Vibrant Gallery, New York City
1996 The Moral Imagination, Plug-In Gallery, Winnipeg, Canada

Bookworks:

2006 The Revenge of the Lesbian Folk-singer, Blurred Books, New York City
1999 From Beyond the Unknown, Liquid Editions, New York City
1993 Captain Adam, Plug-In Editions, Canada
1991 Adam, Plug-In Editions, Canada

Teaching:

2003-06 Adjunct Professor, Photography Department, FIT/CUNY, New York City.
1990-91 Studio Programs Instructor, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Canada
1989 Studio Foundation and Foundation Sculpture Instructor, University of Victoria, Canada

Critical Writing:

POD Theory, A-N Magazine, May 2000
The Work of Art in the Era of Digital Production, Plug-In Magazine, May 1996
Death and the Family, The Georgia Straight, May 1995
Carol Moisewitsch, Border Crossings, Fall 1994
Hoots and Whistles From the Bleachers, Border Crossings, Spring 1994
You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby, Border Crossings, Winter 1994
Et Tu, Brute?, Border Crossings, Fall 1993

Reviews:

Robert Enright, Combine Painter, Border Crossings (Fall 1993) pp 54-56
Robert Enright, The Arts Tonight, CBC FM broadcast (May,1993)
Alison Gilmour, Winnipeg Bad Boy of Art Makes Big Impact, Winnipeg Free Press (May 15, 1993)
Randall McIlroy, Kevin Mutch Artworks Seek to Dignify Bad Taste, Winnipeg Free Press (December 15, 1990)

Related Activites:

2000-7 Director, ArtLexis.org, New York City
2006 Guest Lecturer (Orion Lecture), University of Victoria, Canada
1998 Visiting Artist, School of Visual Arts, New York City
1992 Panelist, Art and Audience, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Canada
1992-3 Vice-President, Board of Directors, Plug-In Gallery, Winnipeg, Canada
1990-1 President, Board of Directors, Ace Art, Winnipeg Canada