Alexa Meade's artwork makes viewers a little confused: Are they traditional paintings? Digital transformations? Optical illusions?
The portraits are difficult to understand and give clues to our senses to watch the artwork in the right perspective. Nothing shows a direction, but, looking carefully at the eyes of any Meade’s portrait you can find the element that opens the door to the right perception. Meade paints directly onto the model the transformation from a natural 3D world to a decomposed 2D world where everything is real but transformed.
It is a terrible discovery that our brains can be tricked and set on a false track by the art of reproducing fake clues, fake colors, and fake landscapes. But the work is real and natural and, especially, hand made.
What is really stunning is the understanding that human touch can trick the same brain, the same vision of the artist who made it.
When you enter into a painter’s studio, you find a canvas, windows, the color kitchen, a stage…in Meade's studio there is a chair, colors and a bar where she talks to friends. Alexa Meade’s canvas is the human body, and colors change into the same portrait. If Meade doesn't like a color, she prepares a new one and overpaints on the body what she think is more appropriate.
When someone gets Meade’s attention, they become a living portrait themself. The artwork lasts only a couple of washings, so the subject can see themself for a limited time. For this reason Meade takes a picture to leave the legacy of the artwork.
Alexa Meade caught the attention of all the media in 2014 and become one of the most important and successful artists worldwide for her capacity to innovate the traditional art of portraits.
Her credits include:
2016
Institut Pasteur, The United Nations Building, New York, NY
The Fader, Boom Basel, Miami, FL
Premiéres, Ingo Seufert Gallery for Contemporary Photography, Munich, Germany
Meade Museum, Lincoln Rd, Miami Beach, FL
Satellite Spirit, Espace Marais Marais, Paris, France
Self-Reflection, The Untitled Space Gallery, New York, NY
Palacio de Hierro, Mexico City, Mexico
Color of Reality, collaboration with Jon Boogz, Lil Buck, and Animi.Design
Freedom Awards Ceremony, National Civil Rights Museum
Dance on Camera, Official Selection, Lincoln Center
Best Experimental Short Film, Toronto International Short Film Festival
Flux Series, The Hammer Museum
Art as Impact Award, CNN Great Big Story
Standard Vision
PopTech
2015
Art Paris Art Fair, Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées, Paris, France
Le Pressionnisme 1970 - 1990, les chefs-d’œuvre du graffiti sur toile de Basquiat à Bando, Pinacothèque de Paris, France
After Dark Illusions, Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA
Alexa Meade: A Colloquium Exploring the Dimensions of Space, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Canada
Alexa Meade: Your Body Is My Canvas (Solo), Galerie Sisso, Paris, France
Alexa Meade: Living Colors (Solo), Ingo Seufert Gallery for Contemporary Photography, Luxembourg
12.6.15-12.6.14, Ingo Seufert Gallery for Contemporary Photography, Munich, Germany
"Art Performance: Alexa Meade," Silencio, Paris, France
2014
Alexa Meade: Surfaces & Depths (Solo), Ingo Seufert Gallery for Contemporary Photography, Munich, Germany
Project Warehouse, Ralph Lauren Denim & Supply
Santa Monica, CA
Madrid, Spain
Toronto, Canada
