alexa meade: real-life paintings

by painting directly onto her subjects and photographing them in a variety of constructed and real-world environments, artist alexa meade conflates the worlds of painting, photography, and performance
'transit', 18x24" limited edition chromogenic print
all images © alexa meade


american artist alexa meade creates her representational paintings directly on her subjects, covering people and objects
in layers of acrylic paint before photographing them. the works offer an unusual conflation of painting, installation,
and photography, as the three-dimensional forms are collapsed in space, taking on a 2D appearance in the prints.
in her exhibitions, meade frequently paints over small rooms in which a human subject sits for the duration of the show,
offering a performative aspect to her work.

meade:
'spending my formative years immersed in the world of politicians and PR led to a fascination with the possibilities
of repackaging source texts and adding superficial modifications that would profoundly alter perception.
what the audience ultimately unpackaged was a personal interpretation of an already mediated re-presentation.
[...] by using paint as a mask that mimics the surface attributes of my source materials, I repurpose the common codes
of painting.'



full figure of 'transit'



'mediation'
19x24" limited edition chromogenic print



'natura morta'
18x24" chromogenic print



'natura morta' installation
8'x6'x4'



'framed'
24x18" limited edition chromogenic print



'bernie' study



left: 'auspicious', 24x18" limited edition chromogenic print
right: 'the trap', a model poses outside london's saatchi gallery



meade at work painting one of her subjects
image courtesy of dailymail



the artist poses with a completed installation
image courtesy of dailymail



'spectacle' installation/performance



'spectacle'
18x24" limited edition chromogenic print


via dailymail