Artists

Born, Ballarat, 1956: currently lives and works Melbourne, Australia

Employing the rigorous of geometry and soft organic form, John Meade works in an intuitive way to materialise his ideas, creating tightly orchestrated pieces that explore the metaphysical, the surreal and the erotic. Tapping into the real and the subconscious, playing with scale and expectation, Meade uses minimalism and messiness, the deliberate and the accidental, to explore extremes of form and intensities of emotion. The wishbone-like Progeny is born to breathe hope and life back into a world darkened by wretchedness. Like striding legs, its sweeping curves trace the contours of a slow and steady inhalation; a full drawback of breath that pulls in drifting whirls of fresh air to create a moment of respite, a breathing space where hope returns renewed.

-Johanna Fahey, Incident in the Museum 2: John Meade, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2006

John Meade completed tertiary studies between 1991 and 2004. He received a Bachelor of Fine Art (Sculpture) from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1994; Masters of Arts by Research (Sculpture), RMIT University in 2000; and Masters of Arts (Studio Art), New York University, in 2004.

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 by Meade 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. Meade has also presented works as part of many important group exhibitions, including: Auckland Art Fair, 2011; PICA Salon, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, 2011; Adventures with Form in Space, 4th Balnaves Sculpture Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2006; 21st Century Modern, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, 2006; 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 received significant public sculpture commissions including Aqualung for The National Bank, Lend Lease, Docklands, Melbourne, completed in 2006. His work is held in distinguished public collections, as well as private and corporate collections. Meade received the Anne and Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship in 2003 and, with support from Asialink, undertook a studio residency in India in 1998-99.

John Meade is represented in Australia by Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

Downloads

Meade CV 2011