Mita Mahato
cut paper | collage | comix
ARTIST STATEMENT: I love paper. I love cutting, pasting, touching paper. (I hope reading that sentence gives you the urge to touch some paper—any paper.) This blank material we use as the foundation for our stories, paintings, drawings, memories, and dreams, is full of creative potential. As a cut paper, collage, and comix artist, I draw attention to the dynamic possibilities of paper by suggesting images and story through shapes, layers, and textures. In taking up primarily discarded materials (the morning newspaper, gift-wrap, maps, advertisements) and renewing and transforming them through paper-making and collage techniques, my work explores themes of loss (of life, land, language, identity, habitat) and how we might reframe that loss through acts of cutting, pasting, touching.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2019 Associate Curator of Public and Youth Programs, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle
2018 Curator, “COMIX BODY,” Kittredge Gallery, Tacoma
2017 Lead Organizer, Comics and Medicine Conference: Access Points, Seattle
2016-2019 Teaching Artist Facilitator, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle
2016 Organizer, “Public Art: Planting Seeds, Setting Fires” (Artist Panel), Kittredge Gallery, Tacoma
2016 Organizer, “Double Visions: Interview with Ricardo Cavolo,” Kittredge Gallery, Tacoma
2014- Board Member, Short Run Seattle (Board Chair, 2016)
2014 Senior Project Mentor, Highline High School, Burien
2012-2018 Discussion Facilitator, Tomlinson Seniors Group, Tacoma
2005-2019 Associate Professor of English, U Puget Sound (Visual Studies, Cultural Theory), Tacoma
SELECTED TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Workshops
2019 “Graphic Memoir Workshop,” Seattle Reads with Seattle Public Library
2019 ArtVenture (various), Henry Art Gallery
2018 “Nature Comix,” Short Run Summer School, Seattle
2018 Audubon Center Bird Week, Seattle Public Library (drawing workshop)
2018 ArtVenture: Dream City Dioramas, Henry Art Gallery
2018 “Paper-making in the Park,” Seattle Nature Adventures, Seattle
2017 “Paper-making with Mita Mahato” Short Run Summer School, Seattle
2017 ArtVenture: Cosmos Crawl, Henry Art Gallery (family book-making workshop)
2017 “Practicing Graphic Medicine” UC Riverside School of Medicine (3-week workshop seminar)
2017 Henry Teen Collective, with E.T. Russian, Henry Art Gallery (zine tutorial)
2016 ArtVenture: Shred, Stretch, and Sculpt!, Henry Art Gallery (family art workshop)
2016 WSU, Cartoonists Northwest opening reception (comics workshop)
2016 ArtVenture: Comic Power, Henry Art Gallery (family comics workshop)
2016 Arty Party, Henry Art Gallery/Henry Teen Collective (disguise-making)
2016 Creativity Inspiring Conservation, Seattle Aquarium (cut paper, paper-making)
2015 University of British Columbia, “Introduction to Graphic Forms” (Sarah Leavitt, Professor of record), Vancouver (comics)
2014 Creativity Inspiring Conservation, Seattle Aquarium (cut paper)
2014-2015 Seattle Zine Project (comics)
2014 Comics and Medicine, Baltimore (book-binding)
2014 Evergreen State College, “The Art of Entomology,” with Kelly Froh (Emilie Bess, Professor record), Olympia (comics)
Artist Lectures
2019 University of California, Davis (ASLE), “Arctic Play,” Davis, CA
2019 Washington State University, “Re-Kindle,” Pullman, WA
2018 University of Florida, “Comics and Materiality,” Gainesville, FL
2018 Whitman College, Creative Writing Series, Walla Walla, WA
2017 UC Riverside, “Art and Comics in the Time of Trump: Why I’m Going to Sea,” Riverside, CA
2016 WSU, “What is Graphic Medicine?”
2016 Robinson Center, “Cut Paper Comics,” (Michelle Penaloza, Teacher of Record)
2015 University of British Columbia, “These Frames are Hiding Places,” Vancouver
2014 UC Riverside, “These Frames are Hiding Places,” Riverside, CA
2013 Short Run Seattle, “Drawing Blood: Comics and Health,” Seattle
SELECTED PUBLIC EVENTS
2019 AWP “Intersections of Poetry and Visual Arts” panel, Portland, OR
2018 Artist Reading, Clerestory Series, Seattle
2017 Artist Panel, “Place as Character with Emil Ferris, Sophie Goldstein, Laura Knetzger, and Mita Mahato” CAKE, Chicago
2017 Artist Reading, In Between, Elliott Bay Books (with EJ Koh, Jane Wong, and Montreux Rotholtz), Seattle
2017 Artist Reading, In Between Reading, Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery, Seattle
2017 Discussion Facilitation, “Cinema Dissections,” SIFF, Seattle
2016 Artist Reading, “Casseroles, Collages, and Creeps,” Scablands Lit, Spokane
2016 Artist Tour, Seattle Art Museum’s “My Favorite Things,” Graphic Masters exhibit, Seattle
2015 Artist Reading, “September and other dreams,” Lit Crawl, Seattle
2015 Artist Panel, “The Local Indies Comics Community,” Geek Girl Con, Seattle
2015 Artist Reading, Paper Cuts, Culver Arts Center, Riverside, CA
2015 Artist Reading, Dream Sequences, New Tomorrow, Seattle
2015 Artist Reading, “Ash” (graphic memoir excerpt), Seattle Public Library
2015 Artist Reading, “Ink” (graphic memoir excerpt), Olympia Public Library
2014 Artist Reading, “A Story Begins” (graphic memoir excerpt), Black Coffee Co-Op, Seattle
2014 Artist Panel, “Re-Imagining Text and Image,” University of Puget Sound
2013 Artist Panel, “Visualizing Story” King’s Books, Tacoma
2013 Artist Reading, “Roots,” Laydeez Do Comics, Chicago Branch
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019 Comics for All, Seattle City Hall, Seattle (curated by Kelly Froh)
2018 On/Off Grid, Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago (curated by Lydia Fu)
2017 Art To Read, SOIL Gallery, Seattle (curated by Short Run and Jessica Hoffman)
2017 Paper Cut, Antenna Gallery, New Orleans (curated by Jessica Hoffman)
2016 Alternative Comics Exhibition, Washington State University Museum of Art (curated by Zach Mazur)
2016 Guilty Pleasures, Essentia, Seattle (curated by Maxx Folis)
2016 Ghosts of Seattle Past, Love City Love, Seattle (curated by Jaimee Garbicek)
2015 Comics and Medicine, Culver Arts Center, Riverside, CA (curated by Juliet McMullin)
2015 Make.Shift Art Space, Bellingham, WA
2015 Wonder Women, Warlock Labs, Seattle
2014 Comics and Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medical School Pre-Clinical Teaching Building, Baltimore (curated by Lydia Gregg)
2013 Graphic Novel Northwest, Art Gallery at Shoreline Community College, Seattle (curated by David Lasky)
2013 Marathon, Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery, Seattle (curated by Larry Reid)
2013- Phoenix Project: Surviving Cancer, traveling exhibit: Firth Court (University of Sheffield,UK); Sheffield Cancer Research Center; AHRC Creative Economy Showcase (London)
SELECTED COMICS PUBLICATIONS
2019 “Climate Changes Health,” Public Health Insider, April 2019 (Meredith Li-Vollmer, Ed.)
2018 “Lullaby,” Shenandoah, November (Beth Staples, Ed.)
2018 “Window,” Mutha Magazine, March 23rd (Meg Lemke Ed.)
2017 In Between: Poetry Comics by Mita Mahato, Pleiades Press (Kathryn Nuernberger, Ed.)
2017 “For You Blue,” Seattle Weekly, June 28th (Kelton Sears, Ed.)
2017 “Blue,” self-published mini-comic
2016 “Patterns,” self-published mini-comic
2016 “Reflections on Seattle’s Fall,” Seattle Weekly, September 28th (Kelton Sears, Ed.)
2016 “Caws #1,” self-published mini-comic
2016 “Fish and Chips,” Seattle Weekly, May 18th (Kelton Sears, Ed.)
2016 “Chicken,” Seattle Weekly, January 6th (Kelton Sears, Ed.)
2015 “Sea,” Self-published mini-comic
2015 “Nightmare,” Self-published mini-comic
2015 “Hitched,” Self-published mini-comic
2014 “Sometimes You See Only What You Want to See,” Self-published mini-comic
2014 “Old Growth,” Self-published mini-comic
2014 “Fruit,” Self-published mini-comic
2013 “The Salmon,” Self-published mini-comic
2013 “Cancer,” Drunken Boat Literary Arts Journal no. 17.
2013 “Roots,” Self-published mini-comic (graphic novel excerpt)
2013 “Small Steps,” Self-published mini-comic
2013 “Unidentified Fluid Object,” Self-published mini-comic
2012 “At Least Stay Close,” Self-published mini-comic
2012 “Life Lines,” Self-published mini-comic
2012 “Unidentified Feeling Object,” Self-published mini-comic
In progress: These Frames are Hiding Places, full length graphic memoir
SELECTED GROUP PUBLICATIONS
2018 Lines Drawn (series editor with Meredith Li-Vollmer), Mutha Magazine
2017 “Depth,” Cold Cube Anthology #3, Cold Cube Press
2017 Graphic Medicine #1, Editor
2016 “Forty-Two” (with Kelly Froh and Emilie Bess); self-published mini comic
2016 “Lucky Devil,” Ghosts of Seattle Past, Ed. Jaimee Garbicek, Chin Music Press (forthcoming)
2016 Red Eye, Co-Editor (with Eroyn Franklin and Jon Horn), Short Run Micropress
2015 Bloody Pussy, Co-Editor (with Eroyn Franklin and Kelly Froh); solicited for inclusion in the archives at the Library of Congress
2015 “Toxic Shock,” Bloody Pussy: A Feminist Rag
2013 Ivy Zine, with MK Czerwiec
RESIDENCIES AND RECOGNITIONS
2017 City Artist Projects Grant, Office of Arts and Culture, Seattle
2017 Arctic Circle Residency, Svalbard
2017 School of Medicine, UC Riverside, Artist in Residence
2017 Trailer Blaze Residency, Short Run Seattle
2016 Cartoonists NW Golden Toonie Nomination
2016 Cartoonists NW Toonie Award, “Sea”
2016 Trailer Blaze Residency, Short Run Seattle
2015 Library of Congress solicitation for Bloody Pussy: A Feminist Rag
2015 Trailer Blaze Residency, Short Run Seattle
JURIED FESTIVALS
2018 Short Run, Comix and Arts Festival, Seattle
2017 Short Run, Comix and Arts Festival, Seattle
2017 CAKE (Chicago Alternative Comix Expo), Chicago
2016 Short Run, Comix and Arts Festival, Seattle
2016 Seattle Art Museum Graphic Masters Zine and Print Fair, Seattle
2015 Short Run Comix and Arts Festival, Seattle
2015 BellCAF, Bellingham
2014 Short Run Comix and Arts Festival, Seattle
2014 CAKE (Chicago Alternative Comix Expo), Chicago
2013 Short Run Comix and Arts Festival, Seattle
2013 Stumptown, Portland
2013 CAKE, Chicago
2012 Short Run Comix and Arts Festival, Seattle
SELECTED PRESS
Seattle Review of Books, “Short Run is Seattle’s Best Book Festival,” November 2018
Shenandoah Peak, “Loud with Invention: An Interview with Mita Mahato,” November 2018
Panel Patter, “Favorite Indie Books of 2017,” January 2nd, 2018
Seattle Review of Books, “Thursday Comics Hangover: 2017 in Review,” December 28, 2017
Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery, “What’s in Store: Top Comix of 2017,” December 2017
Amodern, “On Graphic Arts and Ephemera: A Conversation with Mita Mahato,” December 2017
Seattle Review of Books, “Adventures in the Third Dimension,” October 31, 3017
Seattle Weekly, “The Top 5 Local Books to Look Forward to This Fall,” September 13, 2017
The Stranger, “Ghosts of Seattle Past Creates Art out of Seattle’s Favorite Pastime,” March 2, 2016
Seattle Review of Books, “Short Run for the Long Haul,” November 2, 2015
The Stranger, “Short Run Festival Spotlight: Mita Mahato’s Cut-Up Comics,” October 29, 2015
The AV Club, “Comics Panel” (Bloody Pussy Review), October 6, 2015
Graphic Medicine, “Bloody Pussy: The Interview,” September 16, 2015
Short Rundown, “New Release Spotlight,” June 23, 2015
Bitch Media, “Six Great Small Press Titles to Seek Out,” November 5, 2014
Comics Reporter, “Go Look: Mita Mahato,” September 25, 2014
The Comics Beat, “CAKE Report: Indie Comics Go to Chicago,” June 4, 2014
The Globe and the Mail, “Graphic Medicine in Photos,” August 10, 2012
All contents copyright Mita Mahato 2016. Use and/or duplication of any material on this website without express and written permission is strictly prohibited.
Mita Mahato 
