JOHN MEADE
b. 1956, AustraliaThrough the improvised and playful manipulation of materials, John Meade creates seductive sculptural shapes that offer an intriguing mix of material enterprise and cultural observation. His abstract forms have their beginnings in the real world and are measured against the human body. Indeed, without literally representing figures or human actions, his sculptures contain astute associations to the flesh and bodily subjectivities. Mixed with the suggestive iconographies of pop music, fashion, B-grade films and gay erotica, the body acts as a base from which Meade explores themes relating to beauty, repulsion, strength, creativity, sex and desire.
In 2010 Latrobe Regional Gallery, Victoria, presented Objects to Live By / The Art of John Meade which showcased Meade’s significant body of work and toured extensively throughout regional galleries in Australia. Other individual exhibitions include: New Weekly, Ocular Lab, Melbourne 2008; Incident in the Museum 2, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne 2005; and Propulsion, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, and Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 2001.
Selected group exhibitions, including Ghar ghar ki baat / Tales from two homes, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, 2013; Adventures with Form in Space, 4th Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2006; 21st Century Modern: 2006 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia; This was the future... Australian Sculpture of the 1950s, 60s, 70s and Today, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne 2003; and Orifice, Australia Centre of Contemporary Art, 2003.
Meade has also received many significant public sculpture commissions, including: Riverside Corolla 2012, for DEXUS, as part of their landmark redevelopment of Southgate, Melbourne, and Aqualung 2006 for The National Bank, Lend Lease, Docklands, Melbourne.
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