Allyson Mitchell

A visual and performance artist, video- and filmmaker, installation artist and writer, Mitchell is widely known for transforming the definition of art and discourse on the body, sexuality and gender.

fluffInfluenced by soft-porn sources such as Playboy cartoons and centrefolds, her art works are about womankind. Observed through Mitchell's own lesbian-activist lens and reheated in the oven of feminist theory, she investigates female power and the thwarting of it.

An active member of Toronto's cultural community, Mitchell has numerous solo and group exhibitions to her credit. A visit to her latest exhibition, Lady Sasquatch, currently at Paul Petro Contemporary Art in Toronto, is the "perfect consciousness-raising-du-jour for the woman about town, a show that celebrates the she-beast in all of us with a suite of hand-stitched, fun-fur wall pieces and freestanding sculptures," wrote critic Sarah Milroy in The Globe and Mail (Sept. 23). Mitchell's works remain on view at Paul Petro until Oct. 8.

Mitchell's films and videos have been screened at lesbian and gay film festivals worldwide, including in San Francisco, Milan and Tokyo. She has been appearing in performances at Toronto's Buddies in Bad Time Theatre since 1998. She is also the author of many books and articles, and is co-editor of Turbo Chicks, a book that she refers to as "third-wave feminist writing."

Mitchell holds an Honours BA in English and women's studies and a Master's degree in women's studies from York University, where she is currently a doctoral candidate in women’s studies.