KO Artist Feature Alexa Meade

Photo by Mark Seliger

Artist Alexa Meade is a self-taught installation artist who paints on people to integrate them into the composition, creating a living painting.Born in 1986 in Washington, DC, USA, Alexa studied Poli-Sci at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY and graduated with her B.A. in 2009. Alexa is Los Angeles based these days and travels all over the world to creates her artwork. Alexa has lectured at the California Institute of the Arts, UC-Berkeley, Apple, Adobe, and National Geographic London.

A year ago,Alexa brought her unconventional artwork to Denim & Supply Ralph Lauren’s campaign, Project Warehouse, in a special installation. (The video is at the bottom of this page) I love seeing innvoative female artists collaborating with fashion labels to produce interesting new way to see the line. Alexa’s work is so unique and incorporates, sculpture, performance art, painting and portrait photography. Alexa is the very definition of a multiplatform contemporary artist.

KO: What is your artistic medium?

AM:My paintings are a like a reverse Trompe-L’Oeil. Unlike a traditional Trompe-L’oeil painting which tricks the eye into thinking a 2D canvas might be a real 3D space, I do the opposite: I take the 3D world and create the illusion that it is a 2D painting.

KO: How did you decide you were an artist or to come up with the type of art you create?

AM:Before I started making my paintings on people, I hadn’t practiced painting in 6 years. I took some sculpture classes in college that really influenced the way I viewed space and relationships between objects. I often times draw upon my past in sculpture in thinking about how to push the concepts in my work.

KO: Is there a connection in your work to fashion?

AM: I definitely see an overlap between my work and fashion because it’s taking the body and dressing it in a way that creates a mood, style, and aesthetic. It’s interesting to take this expression of clothing and then add my own layer of interpretation on it.

KO: Who is your favorite artist?

AM:I love Robert Irwin’s explorations of shadow and perception. His biography, “Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees” has been highly influential in the development of my work.

KO: What does your creative process look like?

AM: I like to paint as much of the background and clothes as I can before the day of the final painting and photo session. I can spend 2-5 days painting the walls, floors, and props used in a full body portrait. Painting clothes can take 1-4 hours depending on the extensiveness of the drapery and any patterned print. I need to paint the clothes on a stand-in model’s body in order to effectively capture the shadows of the drapery.

On the day of painting the final portrait, my real model puts on the pre-painted clothes and I just paint the face and exposed skin. I like to minimize the time my model has to pose during the painting session so that when it’s comes to the photography, the model feels more lively and engaged.

KO: What advice do you give to other artists?

AM: Believe in yourself and work your ass off. No one is going to care as much about your passions as you are. You don’t necessarily need external validation. You have to bring your art into the world to show people why it matters. Words won’t do it justice — that’s why we make art: for things that don’t translate into words.