Mia Grimes

Bio

Mia Grimes was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. When she was eight years old, her family moved to the beautiful mountains of Carmel Valley California. She grew up around animals- horses, rabbits, chickens, dogs, and countless wild animals. She was surrounded by wildlife, and on hikes she would often find dead animals and animal bones. Growing up in nature lead to a fascination with animals, skeletons and skulls, often featured in her work. Later on Mia started incorporating mushrooms in her work, as a symbol of life and death, healing and pain.

She became interested in artificial intelligence as well, and started to use elements pertaining to artificial intelligence. Mia received her Bachelor of Fine Art at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, OR. Her focus was oil painting. She attended a residency via PNCA in 2011 at STORE PDX, via The Settlement PDX. She also curated a retrospective show for the great makeup artist Linda Mason in 2013. Mia works and resides in New York, NY. She has been there since 2012. Mia has lived in Denmark, California, and Oregon. She now resides in New York, New York.

Artist Statement

Using distortion of characters and fantastical elements, Mia provides the viewer with a world different than reality. Mixing elements that normally would not go hand in hand, like mixing nature with artificiality, is a focus in the work. Her art focuses on the subconscious, and is rich with symbolism. The main tools for creating a fantastic environment is done so by using animals, generally distorted in size, alongside people and robots/artificial intelligence.

Tension is revealed by combining the natural with the artificial. Symbolism is frequently used in the work. The work strives to give the viewer a psychological, subconscious atmosphere that includes both beauty and absurdity, using the two as a sort of artistic alchemy. Mia's work can be considered "modern surrealist". Andre Breton is known to be the writer who decided which artists were Surrealist.

He is no longer around to make such decisions, nonetheless she considers herself a Surrealist, modern surrealist, or neo surrealist. Her influences include Hieronymous Bosch, Leonora Carrington, and Frieda Kahlo, and Remedios Varo. Her work also has elements of fantasy, psychedelia, and is very narrative in its approach.