Written by Sara Debevec
Photographs by Mikey Monaghan
Alexa Meade’s art always takes me to another dimension, and I never quite fully grasp how she does it. Walking into her installation at 29 Rooms in Los Angeles back in 2017 really made me think about the limits of my perception and how easily the eye can be tricked.
Multicolored coats, hats, parasols, and glasses, all painted over in Alexa’s unique style, were hanging on racks, allowing visitors to dress up in her work. I picked out my favorite pieces and walked into a painted room. One that matched my new outfit and transformed me into a two-dimensional portrait - a spectacular illusion created with Alexa’s painting technique. I was, at once, bewildered and in complete awe. How has this artist condensed me into a painting - a mere hologram of my existence? Yes, I wanted a photograph taken, I wanted a whole photoshoot. How else was I to explain to all my friends what happened?
Behind a crowd of mesmerized faces all waiting in line to experience the magic that was unfolding before their eyes, was the artist, fully enthralled in the process and technique she developed in 2009 that involves painting over shadows to compress 3D objects. She was wearing paint splattered overalls and leaning over a parasol carefully painting astrological symbols and constellations on its surface. “I like to create a sense of magic and wonder through my art,” she explained, “a world where normal rules don’t necessarily apply.”
She was in her senior year of college, finishing her degree in Political Science when she had this idea to put black paint on shadows. She started experimenting and painting on objects that made her discover by manipulating shadows, she can master depth perception. “Many of our spatial depth cues rely upon information from shadows and the fact that I am able to take shadows and accentuate them or dramatically change them in some fashion, makes it merely impossible [for people] to understand the geometry of that space,” said Alexa.
"Many of our spatial depth cues
rely upon information from shadows..."
Alexa Meade has been a working artist for over a decade, traveling the world and collaborating with major brands and musicians like Ariana Grande, whom she painted for the God is a Woman music video. She has also done live activations in Coachella, Cannes Lions, in the middle of Tokyo and all around the world. In 2018 her Immersed in Wonderland exhibit inspired by Alice In Wonderland, had its debut on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. She had taken over a 4000 sq ft space and turned it into a large painted art installation that people were able to walk into and become part. Most recently she has also been Artist in Residence at Google. “I created a light installation in the Google office that we then captured with their 3D imaging technology Light Fields. With that, we are able to recreate the entire scene in virtual reality or augmented reality,” she added. I wasn’t surprised to hear her work has expanded into virtual reality, but I got especially excited when I heard about
her NFT drops.
Alexa’s art is part painting, part performance, part installation, part sculpture, part video art and up until recently, only collectible via limited edition photography. Although her video artwork has been exhibited in museums such as the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and Lincoln Center in New York City, the moving image remained non-collectible. The emergence and popularity of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) has opened new doors for Alexa, enabling video art to fall under the category of a collectable artwork and medium. “I am pretty excited that with this technology, finally this art - that belongs in the Lincoln Center - can now belong in an art collection as well,” she added. “I have an incredible archive of really beautiful video artwork [that has finally] found its time and maybe was made ahead of the time in which it could actually be appreciated,” said the artist. Alexa’s clips are short loops that range from 8 to 30 seconds. However, for her upcoming drop on Nifty Gateway, she’s going to be releasing a full five minute short film.
She first became interested in cryptocurrency in 2012 and owns a physical Bitcoin from back in the day. It wasn’t until Beeple’s artwork sold for $69 million in March this year that she realized she needed to brush up on her technology. “I reached out to a bunch of people in my network and extended network who work in tech and primarily in crypto. I asked them to explain the technology to me, and how does this all work, how does this make sense. And they were able to point me in the direction of other people, deeper in the NFT space, which also includes some NFT collectors. So, during my education period, I was able to really learn a lot very fast and also become integrated in the NFT community. From that I got invited to private Telegram groups or to speak at Clubhouse panels and hang out in places where other NFT artists and collectors meet,” explained Alexa.
She did her first drop on the platform Foundation in early April this year. For that drop she did five pieces. Two of them were collaborative with model Alli Harvard and the rest were other video art selections from her portfolio. In May she did a drop with performance artist Sheila Vand and that was a piece from their milk series where she painted on Sheila’s body as the artist lay in a pool of milk. That body of work inspired the Ariana Grande music video that ended up getting 300 million views. So, the Alexa - Sheila collaboration with milk paintings was a pivotal moment in her development as an artist that led to the evolution of something much greater. “I did that drop on Open Sea and then I did my 3rd drop in June on Foundation and that was another collaboration with model Alli Harvard. We’ve been creating new art together during the pandemic,”
continued Alexa.
Alexa found the aesthetic of people who are looking to collect NFT's is quite different from those who buy her art in the normal gallery setting. “For NFTs you have to own crypto and the people who are making the main purchases are crypto OG’s who are fully native in everything in crypto land.” That has been a critique of NFTs as the people who don’t necessarily have a background in fine art are also the people who are making the curatorial decisions. “But it’s also refreshing to have people outside of the confines of the art world lift their voices up.
Bold Enough to Wait
A lot of the artists that have really succeeded as NFT artists wouldn't have a home normally in the gallery art world. And so, I think it's kind of cool that the keys to the kingdom are being handed over to a next generation business model,” claimed Alexa.
Her next drop on July 16th will be on Nifty Gateway. It’s a short film Color of Reality that speaks to racial injustices in America through the mediums of painting and dance. The film is a collaboration between Alexa and movement artists Jon Boogz and Lil Buck as well as producer Kalie Acheson. Since she found her interest in NFTs, Alexa has been doing one drop per month. “There are wild fluctuations and volatility in anything related to crypto and we have already seen the market correct in late May - and the value of Bitcoin all of a sudden drop - but that doesn’t mean that the fundamentals of technology aren’t strong,” adds Alexa. She is fascinated by this new medium regardless of what the market for digital collectibles may be in the future. “I am just interested in the technology long term,” she added.
As her large-scale installations remain tentative due to the pandemic, her focus is on NFTs and its educational aspects. She has recently been at the Miami Bitcoin conference where she gave speeches at two related events. Alexa has been involved in virtual public speaking at conferences with a several thousand live audience. Alexa has also participated in more intimate webinars with groups of about 30 and Q & As explaining and walking artists through how to create an NFT.
Aya's Crystals
Rosa Dreams
The statistics, according to 2021 Gemini Report, show that among crypto holders in the US, 74% are male, 77% are under the age of 45 and 71% are white. When it comes to female crypto owners, the numbers are substantially less. Needless to say, female artists are greatly underrepresented in the NFT space and Alexa has been tirelessly helping them get their voices across. “The technology is intimidating, and you really need a mentor if you want to try to navigate the space. I want to try to help more female artists understand how they can make the most of this
technology,” said Alexa. With boundless energy and enthusiasm for the NFT space, Alexa continues to shift perspective in the digital realm, creating ripples in Ethereum and empowering artists like herself. -
