By applying paint to her subjects rather than to canvas, artist Alexa Meade turns people, food and still lives into 3D installations as 2D paintings.
Artist Alexa Meade
Alexa Meade uses paint and a paintbrush, like most artists. But she applies the non-toxic paint directly onto her subjects (mostly people and some food) and turns their three-dimensional appearance into a two dimensional one.
She then photographs the subject against a background creating a combination installation/painting. The resulting optically distorted portraits flatten the subject, foreground and background into one continuous plane, challenging the viewer’s perceptual boundaries.
Alexa Meade’s TED Talk in Edinburgh, June 2014, ‘Your body is my canvas’:
Spectacle (installation and final art):
Blue Print (Meade at work, final art and installation):
Hesitate (created by painting a person and placing them in milk.):
Head Trip (in progress and final art):
The two works above, Milk and Head Trip, were created in conjunction with Sheila Vand. See their collaborative works here.
Grapefruit:
Egg On Egg:
Transit (installation at Train Station, front and back):
One of my favorite series of Alexa’s is “Art on the Streets” where she paints her human subject in black and white and photographs them against urban graffiti:
On The Downlow:
Risen:
Martyrdom (below left) and Art On The Street (below right):
The making of “Risen”:
Double-Take, a self-portrait:
all images courtesy of and ©Alexa Meade. Video courtesy of TED talks