Dzidra Mitchell grew up on the Central Coast and attended the National Art School (NAS), first in Sydney for a year before taking up a Teachers’ College Scholarship and completing the 4 years of the Diploma in Art (Ed) at the NAS in Newcastle.
After 6 years in England, returning to Sydney in 1976, she resumed teaching and was a founding member of the artist-run gallery, the Kelly St Kolektiv in 1986, where she took part in solo and group exhibitions.
She has been represented in galleries in Sydney, Canada and Latvia.
She has been a finalist in the Blake Prize, the Mosman Art Prize, the Waverly Art Prize, and Art on the Rocks, and having been invited to exhibit in the Kedumba Drawing Award, was a winner of that Acquisitive Award in 2004. Other awards include the P.J. Ireland award at Macquarie University in Sydney, and first prize in the Australian Latvian Artist’s Award, 2011.
Her works have been included in various books of poetry and short stories, and in private collections in England, Germany, Latvia, United States of America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
