Mitchell Poon (b. Brooklyn, New York) is an artist working primarily with drawing, printmaking, and bookbinding. His work is inspired by his experience growing up a third generation Chinese American, a personal mythology, Chinese symbolism and numerology, and his family’s archive. His compositions reference symbolism and numerology to add additional layers of meaning to his narratives, as well as explore themes of temporality, longing, grief, speculation, and mortality.

He first began printmaking after studying lithography at Cornell University, where he received his BA. He has since studied printmaking at other institutions such as the Manhattan Graphics Center and the School of Visual Arts. Currently pursuing his MFA at Rhode Island School of Design, his recent research interests include tessellations, the intersection between sculpture and printmaking, and the decontextualization of imagery.

Can you tell us about your background and how you started your artistic journey?

I was interested in art from a young age, and a core memory of mine is having my parents draw with me every night before going to bed. I had the opportunity to participate in several arts programs growing up, and attended LaGuardia High School in New York City, where I studied fine art for four years. I then went to college at Cornell University, where I earned my bachelor’s degree in economics and French. While there, I took my first lithography class and fell in love with printmaking. However, I did not initially pursue an artistic career and instead worked in a variety of corporate roles in sales, marketing, and account management in the advertising technology industry. I never really saw myself pursuing a career in the arts, but after my father passed away from lung cancer in 2020, I decided to transition away from the technology field to reconnect with printmaking. I began taking classes and studio monitoring at the Manhattan Graphics Center and eventually decided to pursue my Master of Fine Arts at Rhode Island School of Design, where I am currently a graduate student.

How do you stay inspired and motivated to create new work?

I constantly find inspiration from my personal life and the world around me. Learning new things, connecting with people, and researching and studying history helps me refresh my practice and generate new ideas to explore. I have also taught workshops and classes on printmaking techniques, and I find a lot of fulfillment and inspiration from seeing how other artists think and create. My current practice looks at the family archive, and I find that analyzing and re-examining the objects and information in my possession always presents new questions and ideas for me to explore. Additionally, I find that being willing to experiment and reiterate on older ideas helps breathe new life into my artistic practice and inspires me to continue creating.

How do your personal experiences and identity influence your art?

My personal experiences and identity are deeply ingrained in the work that I make. Two pivotal experiences for me were the loss of my father to cancer, and my experience growing up as a third generation Chinese American. Losing my father opened my eyes to the fragility of life and brevity of time, and has heavily influenced the themes that I currently explore in my practice. My heritage and experiences growing up Chinese in America have informed my visual language, specifically the symbols and iconography I incorporate in my artwork. These two facets of my life have also shaped my life philosophy and are thus ever-present when I am making new work or interpreting and manifesting my ideas.

What challenges have you faced as an artist, and how have you overcome them?

While I had studied art throughout my upbringing, I think that my long and varied journey to a career in the arts has made it sometimes difficult for me to feel like a “true artist”. For a long time, my identity was not as an artist but perhaps something art adjacent, and this resulted in bouts of imposter syndrome and insecurity, especially when I first quit working in the technology industry. However, I have come to realize that the title of artist is not something that anyone bestows upon you, and that it is rather something that you get to decide for yourself. I now no longer feel insecure about my journey and instead view my experiences as the foundation for my practice and unique perspectives as a contemporary artist and maker. I have a lot more confidence in the work that I make, the conversations I want to spark with my work, as well as my position and role as an artist.

What role do you believe art plays in social and cultural change?

I think that art can be a catalyst for social and cultural change by presenting new perspectives and encouraging an audience to think about things differently. Art can serve as a portal into realities that may be different or similar to our own, and I believe it can help people learn about, understand, and relate to one another. Inherently, the act of making brings forth change into the world, either by constructive or destructive means. Thus, I believe that art in any form will always affect change, and this could be through sparking new conversations, inspiring new viewpoints, and providing opportunities to experience realities that would be otherwise inaccessible.

What projects are you currently working on, and what can we expect from you in the future?

I am currently working on a couple of large-scale projects in relation to my family’s archive, specifically exploring the synchronicities between the photographic archives of different generations of family members. Part of this work includes tessellations of different materials, including cyanotype printed fabric, Shrinky Dink plastic, and polyester printing plates. I am also working on several lithographs and trying to figure out how best to combine my interests in printmaking, sculpture, and installation. In the future, I hope to continue evolving my practice and being able to share my work with the public. Perhaps the major thing you can expect from me in the near-future will be the completion of my thesis over the next few months—please stay tuned for that!

Text & photo courtesy of Mitchell Poon

Website: https://www.mitchellpoon.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mitchlpoon/