Mitch Griffiths
British, b. 1971
Mitch Griffiths produces arresting contemporary portraits that address themes of isolation, obsolescence and conflict, mirroring a variety of issues seen in modern society, ranging from national identity, celebrity consumerism, social media and surveillance. Painting in oils, Griffiths scrutinises the 21st century through a traditional medium, employing a hyper-realist style learned from the Old Masters, directly recalling the paintings of Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Rubens. He says, ‘Many people say my paintings look photorealist’, he says, ‘but it’s not what I’m trying to achieve. I’m trying to make the viewer enter my reality.’
Born in Nuneaton in 1971, Griffiths developed an early passion for drawing. His school encouraged his proficiency by submitting his work to various art competitions. Griffiths pursued a career in art, enrolling at South Devon College, where he completed a diploma in graphic design in 1987. He later earned a Higher National Diploma in illustration at Southampton Institute. His work as a commercial illustrator, ranging from magazine covers to murals, was supplemented by temporary jobs, such as sheet metal work, for a more reliable income.
Griffiths' first major success came in 1994 when he painted a portrait of boxer Chris Eubank and sent a photograph to Eubank’s agent, Barry Hearn. The boxer was thrilled with the piece and wanted to use it to promote his matches. Eubank subsequently commissioned a series of paintings and became Griffiths' patron for the next three years, setting up a studio for him in Hove.
Through Eubank, Griffiths met entrepreneur Terry Johnson, who owned a luxury retreat called Hustyns in Cornwall, where boxers trained. Griffiths became artist-in-residence, creating over 100 paintings for the centre and helping to establish the Bishop Phillpotts Gallery in Truro, Cornwall. He held three solo exhibitions there in 2001 and 2002.
During this time, Griffiths developed his distinctive figurative style, immersing himself in the culture of the Old Masters. He studied art history and visited London’s museums to examine iconic works. Back in his studio, he experimented with their techniques, composition, and lighting, refining his skills until he could replicate and then creatively evolve from these models. As art historian Philip Wright explains, ‘His pictorial language is not so much old-fashioned as reborn from the vivid and, at times, almost pornographic quality of much of contemporary visual culture.’
While Griffiths' style draws on the past, his work addresses contemporary issues. His large, detailed canvases expose the immoralities and pretences of modern life, often echoing religious iconography but with a modern quest for redemption. His works challenge the self-obsession, consumerism, vanity, greed, addictions, and needless suffering of today’s society.
In 2001, Griffiths entered the National Portrait Gallery's BP Portrait Award with Armoured Heart, which was chosen for the exhibition’s promotional poster, bringing wide exposure to his work. Following on from his first solo show in London at the Enid Lawson Gallery in Kensington in 2002, Halcyon started permanently representing Griffiths in 2004.
Griffiths’ first solo show at Halcyon, Reality (2006) explored the immense power of brand names, featuring works like Twenty-first Century Boy, which depicted a figure in Calvin Klein briefs with a Coca-Cola logo branded into his skin. Credit cards circled his head like a crown of thorns, and his chest and arms bore marks suggesting self-harm. The Promised Land series was exhibited at Halcyon in 2010, featuring 25 paintings which explored the contradictions of modern British life, often using the Union Jack to provoke questions about patriotism and identity. In The Fitting Room and The Muse is Dead, Griffiths critiqued society’s obsession with appearance, voyeurism, and inconsistency.
Griffiths’ second exhibition at Halcyon, Iconostasis (2013), took inspiration from the icon screens in Eastern Orthodox churches. It featured large allegorical canvases and portraits of famous figures like Ray Winstone, Sir Bob Geldof, and Keira Knightley, drawing parallels between modern idols and the way magazines and mobile-phone screens separate us from them.
His 2015 solo exhibition, Enduring Freedom, presented a new body of work that explored post-war disillusionment, including the central triptych First Person Shooter. Drawing on Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est and the Call of Duty video-game series, the work examined the struggle for power in both everyday life and global politics.
In June 2016, the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, showcased 21 of Griffiths' works as part of the Realisms exhibition. Curator Dimitri Ozerkov praised Griffiths’ work, describing it as ‘the laborious application of paint to canvas, careful orchestration of composition, and the search for subject and its attributes,’ noting the artist’s ability to imbue contemporary scenes with epic force.
Griffiths has explained, ‘When I’m standing at an easel, painting, I tend to inhabit my own little pocket of reality, trying to create my own reality on the canvas. I think everybody has these different levels of reality.’
In 2022, Griffiths’ solo exhibition Immortal at Halcyon explored themes that rapidly emerged in Western society over the preceding years, such as isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic, social media’s impact, the growth of activism, and human treatment of one another. The exhibition presented Griffiths’ reflections on modern life through the lens of historical painting style, featuring ordinary people and places as his subjects. An extensive catalogue was published alongside the show.
In 2023, Griffiths contributed to Infidels, a group show at Halcyon, alongside artists like Bob Dylan, Dominic Harris, Ernesto Cánovas, and Santiago Montoya. The exhibition, inspired by Dylan’s 1983 album of the same name, featured works in homage to 17th-century artistic styles, echoing the Baroque tradition of Old Masters like Caravaggio and Velázquez.
Griffiths' work features in the group exhibition Sacred and Profane (2025), which explores how contemporary artists engage with art historical traditions and religious iconography to address modern issues.
TRAINING
1992 Higher National Diploma in Illustration, Southampton Institute 1990 Diploma in Graphic Design, South Devon College
RESIDENCY
1998–2002 Hustyns, Wadebridge, Cornwall, UK
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022 Immortal, Halcyon, London, UK
2016 Realisms, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
2015 Enduring Freedom, Halcyon, London, UK 2013 Iconostasis, Halcyon, London, UK
2010 The Promised Land, Halcyon, London, UK 2006 Reality, Halcyon, London, UK
2002 Enid Lawson Gallery, London, UK
2002 Bishop Phillpotts Gallery, Truro, Cornwall, UK
2001 Bishop Phillpotts Gallery, Truro, Cornwall. UK
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Sacred and Profane, Halcyon, London, UK
2023 Infidels, Halcyon, London, UK
2020 US NOW, Halcyon, London, UK
2015 Pelé: Art, Life, Football, Halcyon, London, UK
COMMISSIONS
1994–1998 Various commissions from private, corporate and celebrity clients
AWARDS 2004
BP Portrait Award, Artist, Model and Critic, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
2003 BP Portrait Award, Sending Message: Be my Wife, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
2001 BP Portrait Award, Armoured Heart, National Portrait Gallery, London; featured on catalogue cover
