Imagine Van Gogh’s painting turning into a breathing being.
Hyperbole, much?? NOPE.. Not the case, if you are familiar with the name ‘Alexa Meade’. The painter who has brought not just a new form of painting but a new perspective to the human eyes with her works and is winning the NFT space too.
Alexa Meade is a self-taught artist who paints on the human body and three-dimensional spaces, to conjure up the illusion that our reality is a two-dimensional painting.
Although graduated in Political Science, she re-discovered her love for painting after she decided to paint the shadow of a friend, but ended up ‘painting her friend’.
Soon, she found herself painting fried food, toast, retired old man and so on and everytime she created Magic!
Alexa’s art has not just been exhibited around the galleries of earthly cities of Paris, London, New York, Tokyo, and Washington, DC, but also in space!
Yes.. Her artwork has also been exhibited in space, orbiting the Earth on the history-making SpaceX Inspiration4 mission.
Alexa has also painted on the body of pop-icon Ariana Grande for her “God is a Woman” music video, which has garnered 350 million views.
Alexa’s art has been upvoted to the #1 position on the Front Page of Reddit thanks to her popularity in the pop-culture scene. She has worked with Apple, BMW, Sony and LEGO.
Alexa was the first ever Artist-in-Residence at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. She has also been Artist-in-Residence at Google, where she worked with engineers advancing Light Field imaging technology.
Inspired by her unconventional career path and leadership, Alexa was invited to lecture at TED, Stanford, and Princeton.
Alexa was also the face for Google Arts & Culture’s ‘Faces of Frida’ campaign, celebrating the legacy of Frida Kahlo and also the female artists carrying the cause forward. She also won the honour of Best Experimental Short Film at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Recalling her first tryst with the crypto space, the artist says that she was introduced to the concepts of crypto and blockchain technology by chance.This happened when a friend gifted me a Bitcoin in 2011, at the value of $12.
She was impressed with the elementary concept of decentralization while following up with the growth of the crypto ecosystem.
Noteworthily, her NFT artworks are some of the most popular ones out there..
Her NFT Artworks
Speaking on her experience with the NFT space, Alexa explained that the NFT space has enabled her to explore the digital realm for her video art without sacrificing scarcity or verifiable ownership.
Some of her early NFTs are available on the marketplace, Foundation and that includes Rainbow Bright, Dreamy Dimensions, Blue Dimensions, Looking into Dimensions, Far out in Dimensions, Seeing Dimensions.
She also believes that NFTs have created unprecedented opportunities for creators.
Rainbow Shift
The video art piece Rainbow Shift by Alexa Meade is a painting on collaborator Alli Harvard’s face to turn her into a living, 2D painting. By using prisms and mirrors Rainbows were painted on her.
The rainbow effect gives a vignette like effect to the soft outlines of the face.
The lightning on the face thus, complements the prismic effect of paints and the natural blending of colours with the surface of the skin adds to the photograph-like texture.
The artpiece was sold off for 21,420 USD as a part of Sotheby’s Boundless Space auction. The funds raised were used to help ensure the not-for-profit’s long-term objectives and support their Arts and Civic Engagement programs.
Aura
Aura is yet another video NFT by Alexa that created history by being among the first works of art exhibited in space. This art piece was amongst the NFTs (made by artists and astronauts alike) which were aboard the spaceship for the SpaceX Inspiration4 rocket launch.
It was sold off for 2.25 ETH. All proceeds were used to benefit the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
The sea-blue, night-purple vibe is what works as a perfect theatrical stage for the theme. (giving a major ‘Starry night’ vibe!!)
The splashes of dusty pink, and pastel coral especially on what appears to be the floor in the painting gives it a stellar touch. The music accompanying the rhythmic composition of breath adds to the serenity in a meditative ambience(indeed an Aura!).
Color of Reality
The Color of Reality NFT explores themes of police brutality and racial injustice in modern American life through the art of dance by Jon Boogz and Lil Buck.
Released on Nifty Gateway, the artwork was sold for $13,000.
The NFT art piece opens with Jon Boogz, Lil Buck sitting frozen in place that is prominently masked with blue paint, thus, setting the tone for ‘injustice’. They are staring into the TV, horrified by the news of police brutality.
The dynamicity kicks in as the dancers express their horror, into a lock and pop dance to ‘grief’ and a ‘call to action’.
On the streets, the dancers are bewildered looking at passersby‘s indifference to their ‘call’. The scene ends with shooting of both the dancers in broad daylight. And yet again, the passersby keep on walking without any concern.
Thus, a powerful demonstration of the intersectionality of art, race and social movements is created.
The parts of these videos are available separately; for instance, Reality of Heartache (8/15 editions) was sold off for $555. Reality of March (has 5 editions), Reality bleeds down (has 10 editions) and Reality Bleeds down(8/10 editions) was sold for $777.
Red or Blue Pill
This NFT is a painting on the body of performance artist Sheila Vand while she was submerged in a pool of milk. Eventually, Red or blue pill portrayed with red and blue paint dissolves away from Sheila’s body, blending into a milky cosmos.
This single edition was sold for 1.9267.
Alli on a Starry Night
Alli on a Starry Night is yet again a portraiture by Alexa Meade on the artist Alli Harvard. This time, it is set in more like an Elizebethan England. The face of a brooding woman is captured in a frame and is set against the backdrop of a starry chiming sky.
Recently, Alexa had also collabed with Yam Karkai’s World of Women for her NFT, ‘With the Weight of the Melting Glaciers on our Shoulders’. The NFT was purchased by the famous rapper and NFT enthusiast Snoop Dogg for 4.5 ETH.
Motifs and Style
By her own confession, Alexa has always been fascinated by shadows. In fact, shadows were something that brought to light her ‘offbeat talent’. It is how she found the strange in the familiar.
Her works, thus, depict a colourful play of light and shadows, reality and illusion that have bent the dimensions and turned the world into a huge canvas.
The portraits do not convey a real person but in actuality, a person who depicts what is skin deep. This happens sometimes in the face of a broody woman, sometimes in the eyes of men that speak of soul-stirring injustice and sometimes a woman representing the whole of Op-Art conventions.
Alexa Meade has exemplified the unconventionality of the NFT space itself through her individualistic artistic skills. She does it by literally breathing ‘fresh life’ into works.
To bring to light a whole new perspective beyond expressions, using colours is nothing short of hypnotics weighing on the scales of 2D and 3D..
We can only wait for the day when in a starry background at Café Terrace, a muse would sit with a subtle Monalisa-like smile looking at you!! Not alluding to what happens when two legends meet, but rather when a Legend like Alexa is born!
Also Read: Seneca: A Surreal Beam in The NFT Space
