Published March 2025
Mitchell Fine Art is more than a gallery – it’s a community space where art feels approachable.
“Art is for everyone,” gallery owner Sharon Mitchell said as we meandered through walls of work by diverse artists from Cuba, Korea, Indonesia, El Salvador, and, of course, Australia.
Sharon and her husband Mike Mitchell own and run the gallery together, celebrating 30 years in the art world and 10 years in the Fortitude Valley gallery space.
The gallery specialises in contemporary and Indigenous art with a skill for translating stories of the art and artist to the public.
“We want art to be accessible. It’s not just about selling a painting; it’s about enjoying and connecting with it,” Ms Mitchell said.
Prior to Mr Mitchell’s career in art, he worked as a teacher in remote Australian Indigenous communities, a legacy reflected in the gallery’s commitment to educating and passion for Indigenous culture.
An attentiveness to nurturing the relationship our community has with art and artists is tangible.
“When we have our exhibitions, the artist will be here at the opening event, people can engage with them…. we do artist talks that are all free… you can come and just sit and hear about the work from the artist’s perspective,” Ms Mitchell said.
“Mike started collecting artefacts from about eight years old….. Even now, he’ll sell a painting and buy three others. He just can’t help himself,” she said.
This passion is an unparalleled ingredient of success and also drives their commitment to fostering new talent, such as Indonesian artist Arwin Hidayat.
“We saw him at Sydney Contemporary… and we just went, ‘We love it. Let’s bring this artist to Brisbane’,” she said.
Though Mitchell Fine Art has called Brisbane home for a decade, its connection to the city began decades earlier in Papua New Guinea.
Mr Mitchell’s family moved to Papua when he was a young boy, where there were no high schools at the time, and he was eventually sent to boarding school in Brisbane.
Thirty years later, “He came back from a school reunion and said, ‘Brisbane is where we need to be. There’s so much more opportunity here’”, Ms Mitchell said.
The couple then moved their family and already-established gallery, Muk Muk Fine Art, from Alice Springs, setting roots in the Fortitude Valley space we celebrate today.
