Travis Mitzel
My work is focused on confronting climate catastrophe, dealing with eco-anxiety, and practicing new eco-mythology. I am interested in exploring an individual's role in a new epoch marked by a mass extinction, climate disaster, and toxic waste. To do so I often partner with non-humans and humans in creating my photographic and mixed-media based works and seek out their help in my research practice. Often times I cohabit and continue to cohabit with many of my non-human partners. My work exists to deal with the overwhelming eco-anxiety that I feel and to illuminate interesting non-human experiences or histories. This is often an exploration of the strange and humorous circumstances of existence in the Anthropocene. My work looks for simple ways to move forward, make kin, better the now and maybe (not looking great) the future too.
Education
MFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL), 2019
BFA Point Park University (Pittsburgh, PA), 2011
Publications
Minding Nature Journal, New Ecological Practices of Making Space: The Great Lakes System, (2019)
Awards
Carnegie Museum of Art Purchase Award, AAP 105th Annual exhibition (2016)
Organizations
Center for Humans and Nature. Featured Artist
Associated Artists of Pittsburgh - Member Artist
Presentations
Travis Mitzel, "Enviro-Art Gallery 2021 guest speaker" (Duke University) April 2021