LIVING PORTRAITS BY ALEXA MEADE NOW ON DISPLAY 529 FIFTH AVENUE, NYC
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Rick Miramontez / Amanda Meyer
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
“THE FIFTH AVENUE PORTRAIT COLLECTION BY ALEXA MEADE“
LIVING PORTRAITS BY ALEXA MEADE
NOW ON DISPLAY
529 FIFTH AVENUE, NYC
PHOTOS HERE
VIDEO of painting live models HERE
New York, NY (September 18, 2023) –The Fifth Avenue Portrait Collection, a massive public art exhibit by artist Alexa Meade, spanning 180 feet long, is now on display in the heart of New York City on Fifth Avenue and 44th Street.
All 22 works of art in The Fifth Avenue Portrait Collection are by Alexa Meade, who paints directly on the faces and clothes of live models, creating the illusion that real humans are two-dimensional paintings on canvas. The colorful living portraits are larger that life, with many of them over 12’ tall.
The art is being exhibited on the outside of the building of the former Wonderland Dreams immersive exhibition. Every inch of the 26,000 square foot space was painted from floor to ceiling, using Alexa Meade’s signature style of art which lets you step inside of a painting. It took over 1,000 gallons of paint to transform the space, which was a former Best Buy. Over 100,000 people came to see the Wonderland Dreams exhibition during its year-long run.
Alexa Meade said, “Walking into an art gallery is intimidating for a lot of people, so I am bringing my art outside for people to be able to appreciate while walking down the street. Art is for everyone, and not just those who feel comfortable in galleries and museums.”
The photography in the collection was primarily captured by either Ruby June or Mike Monaghan.
The live models Alexa Meade painted include such high-profile New Yorkers as Tony Award-winning actor Brian Stokes Mitchell, Grammy Award-winning singer Walter Russell III, and Emmy Award-winning journalist Paul Wontorek. Additional Broadway actors painted in the collection include Nadia Brown, Julia Lester, Gus Birney, Jonalyn Saxer, and Matthew Sims Jr.
Alexa Meade painted numerous creative powerhouses for the series, including magician Zach King, writer Amber Ruffin, costume designer Emilio Sosa, producer Eva Price, dancer Melissa Becraft, and composer Helen Park. The models also include Ruby June, Richie Ridge, Keith Hurd, Adrian Richardson, and Shelli Lether.
The Fifth Avenue Portrait Collection is located at 529 5th Avenue steps away from Grand Central Station, Bryant Park, and the Museum of Modern Art.
ABOUT ALEXA MEADE
Alexa Meade, paints on the human body and three-dimensional spaces, creating the illusion that our reality is a two-dimensional painting. As The New York Times describes Meade’s artwork, “Think of it as a Van Gogh — that is, if one of his paintings were brought to life as a performative protest.”
Meade’s art has been exhibited around the world at the Grand Palais in Paris, the Saatchi Gallery in London, the United Nations in New York, Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, and Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. Her artwork has also been exhibited in space, orbiting the Earth on the history-making SpaceX Inspiration4 mission.
She has created interactive installations at Coachella, Cannes Lions, and Art Basel. Meade is widely known for painting on the body of Ariana Grande for her iconic “God is a Woman” music video, which has nearly 400 million views. Her solo show on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills was attended by forty-thousand people. With profound pop cultural relevance, Alexa’s art has been upvoted to the #1 position on the Front Page of Reddit. She has been commissioned by Apple, BMW, and Sony. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Alexa teamed up with LEGO as a Master Builder for their “Rebuild the World” campaign.
Collaborating with spacetime researchers, 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 alongside the engineers advancing Light Field imaging technology.
Meade and her groundbreaking work have been honored with the “Disruptive Innovation Award” from the Tribeca Film Festival. Respected for her thought leadership and non-traditional career path, she has lectured at TED, Stanford, and Princeton. Meade accepted an invitation to the White House under President Obama. Google Arts & Culture selected Alexa as the face of their “Faces of Frida” campaign, celebrating the legacy of Frida Kahlo and the female artists who are carrying it forward today. InStyle has named Alexa among their “Badass Women.”
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www.instagram.com/alexameadeart
Wonderlanddreams.com