Using the visual language of Britain’s pubs and pool halls, Vowles’ semi-found sculpture (he will often integrate found objects alongside fabricated or reconstructed items) creates a sense of longing and vulnerability in the viewer, drawing out heartfelt associations with the commonplace in order to explore the intersection of cultural and personal connection to the past.

Often returning to the motif of the snooker table, sometimes with harrowing sincerity, sometimes with a biting humor, the viewer is always sure to feel their response viscerally.

But, frankly, that doesn’t much seem to concern Vowles – at least not in his eyes. His practice is an intensely personal one, for which others may find value simply through chance. Using sculpture as a means to explore his own familial and social histories, the work is designed to please him, and him alone. However, that is not to say that he does not leave inroads for others to find their own meaning, or importantly, include references that extend beyond himself. This is perhaps best illustrated in a recent work by Vowles titled Earnie (2021).

While packed with meaning, the piece itself is not hard to describe: it is a “fruity” machine, native to the UK’s pubs, with printed color photographs – the kind formerly printed at drugstores or photo developers – adhered to the back. Additionally, the coin tray holds resin “iced” coins, along with water, the melted ice’s residue. While the details of such personal pieces can easily get muddled, the origin of the piece lies with Vowles’ family: his grandfather had a fruit machine in his home, and while he never met his grandfather, he remembers the fruit machine – a totem for a departed loved one. However, were this (and the coins – another personal reference) to be all, the esotericism would prove difficult to crack. In turn, it is the photographs at the back that open the piece to a broader public, drawing out others’ relationship to history.

The pictures, incidentally, were found behind the couch of an old pub – Vowles still does not know who the images are off, or how they got there. By including them, he explores personal histories now lost, as, of course, the individual who lost the photos no longer has them. What’s more, the singularity of Vowles’ history becomes universalized in the gesture; the fruity is a piece of his own personal history, while the photographs are a part of someone else’s, and together, they create a kindred union, accessible to all who understand what it means for the past to now be out of reach.

This ability to delicately navigate the personal with the universal, along with a striking and distinctive personal style, is what marks Vowles as such an exciting young artist. While he has no doubt wedged his foot in the door of London’s art world, his practice only seems to grow – it seems that the most pressing question to ask is not “if” he will continue producing such engaging work, but only “What’s next?”One does not so much see Mitch Vowles’ work as they experience it. Using the visual language of Britain’s pubs and pool halls, Vowles’ semi-found sculpture (he will often integrate found objects alongside fabricated or reconstructed items) creates a sense of longing and vulnerability in the viewer, drawing out heartfelt associations with the commonplace in order to explore the intersection of cultural and personal connection to the past. Often returning to the motif of the snooker table, sometimes with harrowing sincerity, sometimes with a biting humor, the viewer is always sure to feel their response viscerally.

But, frankly, that doesn’t much seem to concern Vowles – at least not in his eyes. His practice is an intensely personal one, for which others may find value simply through chance. Using sculpture as a means to explore his own familial and social histories, the work is designed to please him, and him alone. However, that is not to say that he does not leave inroads for others to find their own meaning, or importantly, include references that extend beyond himself. This is perhaps best illustrated in a recent work by Vowles titled Earnie (2021).

While packed with meaning, the piece itself is not hard to describe: it is a “fruity” machine, native to the UK’s pubs, with printed color photographs – the kind formerly printed at drugstores or photo developers – adhered to the back. Additionally, the coin tray holds resin “iced” coins, along with water, the melted ice’s residue. While the details of such personal pieces can easily get muddled, the origin of the piece lies with Vowles’ family: his grandfather had a fruit machine in his home, and while he never met his grandfather, he remembers the fruit machine – a totem for a departed loved one. However, were this (and the coins – another personal reference) to be all, the esotericism would prove difficult to crack. In turn, it is the photographs at the back that open the piece to a broader public, drawing out others’ relationship to history.

The pictures, incidentally, were found behind the couch of an old pub – Vowles still does not know who the images are off, or how they got there. By including them, he explores personal histories now lost, as, of course, the individual who lost the photos no longer has them. What’s more, the singularity of Vowles’ history becomes universalized in the gesture; the fruity is a piece of his own personal history, while the photographs are a part of someone else’s, and together, they create a kindred union, accessible to all who understand what it means for the past to now be out of reach.

This ability to delicately navigate the personal with the universal, along with a striking and distinctive personal style, is what marks Vowles as such an exciting young artist. While he has no doubt wedged his foot in the door of London’s art world, his practice only seems to grow – it seems that the most pressing question to ask is not “if” he will continue producing such engaging work, but only “What’s next?”