Alexa Meade
Encyclopedia
Alexa Meade is an American
artist
. While Meade has worked in a variety of sculptural
media
, she is known for her installations
, which feature models situated in tableau scenes painted to look like two-dimensional painting
s. She is currently represented by Irvine Contemporary in Washington, DC
.
. She graduated in 2009 from Vassar College
in Poughkeepsie, NY
with a bachelor's degree
in political science. Meade has never attended art school
nor has she ever taken advanced painting courses. In August 2008, Meade began to experiment
with painting on non-traditional objects. After 9 months of experimenting, she was able to develop a process for painting on people and unveiled her "Reverse Trompe L'Oeil" installation in October, 2009.
ships. Meade once said "I paint representational portraits directly on top of the people I am representing. The models are transformed into embodiments of the artist's interpretation of their essence. When captured on film, the living, breathing people underneath the paint disappear, overshadowed by the masks of themselves." Meade also believes that "what one experiences cannot always be interpreted at face value; seeing is not necessarily believing."
to the surfaces of people
, objects, and walls in a broad brushstroke that mimics the appearance of brushwork in a painting
in a technique that she innovated
. Her "approach to portraiture includes painting the faces and bodies of her models--fabricating additional shadows across cheekbones or slathering a thick layer of paint atop eyebrows--then photographing them." On Al Jazeera English, Meade demonstrated her technique as she painted her subject for Blue Print. She described the process as "painting a portrait of somebody on top of himself." When the three-dimensional
tableau is viewed in a two-dimensional
photograph
, it appears to be an oil painting
. Most find the effect so convincing that they do not realize that the photograph is not of a painting but rather of a live installation
. In one installation
portrait
of a man, Meade painted only his upper torso
against a red background, leaving the rest of his body unpainted for the viewer. To further blur the line between reality
and illusion
, Meade "projected a live video
feed of her painted model into a picture frame
on the wall. Gallery patrons
interacted with both the painted man sitting in the chair and the living painting next to him on the wall." [Artdaily.org Art Daily] described Meade's photographs as photographs are at once records of a performance, a portrait session, and a reflection on three- and two-dimensional representational spaces. Meade calls attention to the expectations of representational space in the picture plane through displacements in medium: she presents not simply photography and painting as instances of two-dimensional picture planes, but transforms painted bodies and objects by presenting them as cohabitating within three-dimensional photographic space."
alluding to her developments to the genre of portraiture
and the ability of her work to speak to an international
audience. Magdalena Sawon, owner of the Postmasters Gallery in New York, NY
, recently said in reference to Meade's work, "A portrait is something that's been with us for 3,000 years--that's not an easy genre to move forward...This is a valid and very interesting contribution to the portrait genre." Christian Furr
, a world renowned painter who selected Meade for an exhibit
at the Saatchi Gallery
in London
, spoke of the international possibilities of her art. "She's going to create quite a stir in this country," Furr
, a UK
national, said. "People are fascinated by playing with viewpoints, and she's taking it one step further than trompe l'oeil. I was blown away by it." Alexa Meade's work has also gained notable fame in the online community. On March 14, 2010, her work David was featured as the "Face of the Day" on the Atlantic Monthly's blog The Daily Dish. On March 20, 2010, her art was the #1 most popular link on Digg.com over a 24 hour period.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
. While Meade has worked in a variety of sculptural
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
media
Media (arts)
In the arts, a media or medium is a material used by an artist or designer to create a work.-Architecture:In the art and science of architecture, the design and construction of buildings and interiors, infrastructure and other physical structures are created...
, she is known for her installations
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
, which feature models situated in tableau scenes painted to look like two-dimensional painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
s. She is currently represented by Irvine Contemporary in Washington, DC
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
.
Early Life and Education/Training
Alexa Meade was born on September 3, 1986 in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
. She graduated in 2009 from Vassar College
Vassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
in Poughkeepsie, NY
Poughkeepsie (town), New York
Poughkeepsie is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 42,777 at the 2000 census. The name is derived from the native term, "Uppu-qui-ipis-in," which means "reed-covered hut by the water."...
with a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in political science. Meade has never attended art school
Art school
Art school is a general term for any educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. The term applies to institutions with elementary, secondary, post-secondary or undergraduate, or graduate or...
nor has she ever taken advanced painting courses. In August 2008, Meade began to experiment
Experiment
An experiment is a methodical procedure carried out with the goal of verifying, falsifying, or establishing the validity of a hypothesis. Experiments vary greatly in their goal and scale, but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results...
with painting on non-traditional objects. After 9 months of experimenting, she was able to develop a process for painting on people and unveiled her "Reverse Trompe L'Oeil" installation in October, 2009.
Philosophy
The original idea for Meade's work came from her fascination with how the sun casts moving shadows. She began to experiment with painting shadows onto moving people, and discovered that the visual effect still worked even if people moved from their original light source. Alexa Meade's art creates a perceptual shift in how the viewer experiences and interprets spatial relationSpatial relation
A spatial relation specifies how some object is located in space in relation to some reference object. Since the reference object is usually much bigger than the object to locate, the latter is often represented by a point. The reference object is often represented by a bounding box .It might be...
ships. Meade once said "I paint representational portraits directly on top of the people I am representing. The models are transformed into embodiments of the artist's interpretation of their essence. When captured on film, the living, breathing people underneath the paint disappear, overshadowed by the masks of themselves." Meade also believes that "what one experiences cannot always be interpreted at face value; seeing is not necessarily believing."
Technique
Meade applies acrylic paintAcrylic paint
Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant when dry...
to the surfaces of people
People
People is a plurality of human beings or other beings possessing enough qualities constituting personhood. It has two usages:* as the plural of person or a group of people People is a plurality of human beings or other beings possessing enough qualities constituting personhood. It has two usages:*...
, objects, and walls in a broad brushstroke that mimics the appearance of brushwork in a painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
in a technique that she innovated
Innovation
Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...
. Her "approach to portraiture includes painting the faces and bodies of her models--fabricating additional shadows across cheekbones or slathering a thick layer of paint atop eyebrows--then photographing them." On Al Jazeera English, Meade demonstrated her technique as she painted her subject for Blue Print. She described the process as "painting a portrait of somebody on top of himself." When the three-dimensional
Dimension
In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a space or object is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus a line has a dimension of one because only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it...
tableau is viewed in a two-dimensional
Dimension
In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a space or object is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus a line has a dimension of one because only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it...
photograph
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
, it appears to be an oil painting
Oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...
. Most find the effect so convincing that they do not realize that the photograph is not of a painting but rather of a live installation
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
. In one installation
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
portrait
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
of a man, Meade painted only his upper torso
Torso
Trunk or torso is an anatomical term for the central part of the many animal bodies from which extend the neck and limbs. The trunk includes the thorax and abdomen.-Major organs:...
against a red background, leaving the rest of his body unpainted for the viewer. To further blur the line between reality
Reality
In philosophy, reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined. In a wider definition, reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible...
and illusion
Illusion
An illusion is a distortion of the senses, revealing how the brain normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. While illusions distort reality, they are generally shared by most people....
, Meade "projected a live video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
feed of her painted model into a picture frame
Picture frame
A picture frame is a decorative edging for a picture, such as a painting or photograph, intended to enhance it, make it easier to display, or protect it.-Construction:...
on the wall. Gallery patrons
Patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...
interacted with both the painted man sitting in the chair and the living painting next to him on the wall." [Artdaily.org Art Daily] described Meade's photographs as photographs are at once records of a performance, a portrait session, and a reflection on three- and two-dimensional representational spaces. Meade calls attention to the expectations of representational space in the picture plane through displacements in medium: she presents not simply photography and painting as instances of two-dimensional picture planes, but transforms painted bodies and objects by presenting them as cohabitating within three-dimensional photographic space."
Critical Acclaim
Recent critical acclaim for Meade's work has been positive, with criticsArt criticism
Art criticism is the discussion or evaluation of visual art.Art critics usually criticize art in the context of aesthetics or the theory of beauty...
alluding to her developments to the genre of portraiture
Portrait painting
Portrait painting is a genre in painting, where the intent is to depict the visual appearance of the subject. Beside human beings, animals, pets and even inanimate objects can be chosen as the subject for a portrait...
and the ability of her work to speak to an international
International
----International mostly means something that involves more than one country. The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries...
audience. Magdalena Sawon, owner of the Postmasters Gallery in New York, NY
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, recently said in reference to Meade's work, "A portrait is something that's been with us for 3,000 years--that's not an easy genre to move forward...This is a valid and very interesting contribution to the portrait genre." Christian Furr
Christian Furr
Christian Furr is an English painter. He was, at the age of 28, the youngest artist to officially paint Queen Elizabeth II.He was born in Heswall, Wirral, England....
, a world renowned painter who selected Meade for an exhibit
Art exhibition
Art exhibitions are traditionally the space in which art objects meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is rarely true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhibition". In American English, they may be called "exhibit", "exposition" or...
at the Saatchi Gallery
Saatchi Gallery
The Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art, opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985 in order to exhibit his collection to the public. It has occupied different premises, first in North London, then the South Bank by the River Thames and currently in Chelsea. Saatchi's collection, and...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, spoke of the international possibilities of her art. "She's going to create quite a stir in this country," Furr
Christian Furr
Christian Furr is an English painter. He was, at the age of 28, the youngest artist to officially paint Queen Elizabeth II.He was born in Heswall, Wirral, England....
, a UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
national, said. "People are fascinated by playing with viewpoints, and she's taking it one step further than trompe l'oeil. I was blown away by it." Alexa Meade's work has also gained notable fame in the online community. On March 14, 2010, her work David was featured as the "Face of the Day" on the Atlantic Monthly's blog The Daily Dish. On March 20, 2010, her art was the #1 most popular link on Digg.com over a 24 hour period.