Alexa Meade
1986– · American installation artist who paints human bodies
Alexa Meade (born 1986) is an American installation artist known for painting directly onto human bodies and everyday objects so that, when photographed, they appear two-dimensional. What remains is a photograph of a painting in which the real person stays hidden beneath the paint. Her work draws on trompe-l'oeil, the classical technique that creates the illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat surface, but reverses it: the real becomes what looks painted.
Meade was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Chevy Chase, Maryland. She graduated in political science from Vassar College in 2009. She first planned a career in politics, interning with members of Congress and working as a press assistant on Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. That same year she decided to become a professional artist and taught herself to paint. She first experimented with painting shadows and highlights on a friend's body at Vassar, and after graduating she practiced on objects such as grapefruits and fried eggs.
Her Living Paintings series combines acrylic painting, photography, installation and performance. Only the unpainted areas, such as hair and eyes, reveal that the subjects are people. In March 2010 her work spread widely after a mention on Jason Kottke's blog, and her best-known piece, Transit, shows an older man on the Washington, D.C. metro who had previously been painted in her studio.
Her work has been shown at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington and the Saatchi Gallery in London. Robert Irwin, the installation artist, is cited as an influence.