Teaser video! Introducing META MORPH, 2019 photosculpture commissioned for Cota by Jonny Cota, winner of Making The Cut!
Experience this piece and others at the concept store alongside Cota’s Metamorphosis collection at the store in DTLA and or virtually via AR.
Destiny, 2015. For AIDS Healthcare Foundation/Impulse Group NYC.
Enlightened Ruth, 2004. For HBO/Six Feet Under.
Beauty, 2007. For Flaunt Magazine.
About
Meanix began creating their signature torn brand of photosculpture in 1995, as a student of Interdisciplinary Arts at San Francisco State University. In 2004, they received international acclaim as the real life, commissioned creator of works depicted as the character Claire Fisher’s art on HBO's Six Feet Under. Meanix’s latest commission from fashion designer Jonny Cota, winner of Amazon Prime’s Making The Cut, will be featured in their COTA by Skingraft store in downtown Los Angeles.
Born at the tail end of the 1960’s, growing up as a rambunctious queer kid in an extra large, suburban Pennsylvania family, Meanix and their work have long reveled in creative transcendence. Hyper active, expressive and aware from the start, they never stopped shape shifting since fully embracing disco dancing at age five.
Harkening that energetic release and Meanix’s early learned survival techniques that demanded constant readjusting, Meanix’s papier-mâché proxies stealthily molt self-limitations and embrace paradigm shifts in growth, even if liberation and emboldened freedom isn’t always a pretty picture. They celebrate the dismantling of strangulating systems and the invention of sustainable, equitable solutions. Destruction and creation serve intertwined with purpose and conviction. Resulting in an ecstatic sense of serene metamorphosis, an everlasting spark of transmutation.
Utilizing images to transform perceptions, Meanix’s Face To Face series fractures the facades of 12 individuals making conscious, informed decisions when confronting HIV stigma. Mining the mission of Impulse Group NYC, an affiliate of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, it ignites conversations about HIV to lessen an up swell of infections. The multimedia experience also layers interviews, sculpture, photography, video, poetry and performance art.
From its inception, the flux of Meanix photosculpture illustrates individuals as innately multidimensional. Powerful dancers and outliers of change remain Meanix's initial inspiration, intuitively persuaded to break convention, gain clarity and ultimately, expand together as one peaceful force. Gracefully innovating into the wild unknown.
Curriculum Vitae
David Meanix
475 West 57thStreet, 28D2, New York, NY 10019
323-449-0998
Education
2019 Certificate, Digital Design, Parsons/The New School, NY
2014 BA, Interdisciplinary Art, San Francisco State University, CA
1991 Art & Photography Major, Penn State University, PA
Solo Exhibitions
2015 Face To Face, Highline Loft, New York, NY
2008 This City, Leo Kesting Gallery, New York, NY
2007 Common Sense, Bert Green Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
2007 Wonder,Advocate & Gochis Galleries, Gay & Lesbian Center, LA, CA
2007 Everything Changes, Capla Kesting Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY
2005 Second Nature, Bert Green Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
2003 Paper Thin, Circle Elephant Art, Los Angeles, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2018 Gala Auction, Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance, New York, NY
2018 Postcards from the Edge, Visual AIDS, Gallery 524, New York, NY
2017 Yellow Chair: ACLU Benefit, David & Schweitzer Contemporary, Brooklyn, NY
2017 Tremors Art Show, Point Green Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2017 Gala Auction, Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance, New York, NY
2017 LGBT Fiesta Youth Group Gala Auction, San Antonio, TX
2016 Queering Space, Yale University School of Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
2016 Trevor Project Art Auction, Artists Corner Gallery, Hollywood, CA
2014 Transforming New York Street Objects, Site 95 & The Lodge Gallery, NY, NY
2010 Small Works, Krause Gallery, New York, NY
2010 Artists Preview, R. Wells Gallery, Binghamton, NY
2008 Truthiness- Photography as Sculpture, CA Museum of Photography & Sweeney Art Gallery, UC Riverside, Riverside, CA
2008 Stretching The Truth, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
2007 Four Handed Lift: Advocacy, Art, Spirit, and Community, Auction for HIV Law
Project, Moti Hasson Gallery, New York, NY
2007 Vitamin W: Altered State of Wonderment, City Without Walls, Newark, NJ
2007 Fountain Art Fair, Capla Kesting Fine Art, New York, NY
2006 Bridge Art Fair, Bert Green Fine Art, Miami, FL
2006 Title Unknown, Royal University of Fine Arts, Stockholm, Sweden
2006 Nova Art Fair, Bert Green Fine Art, Chicago, IL
2006 Rock For Kids Auction: The Kids Are Alright, Chicago, IL
2005 Movement Works Project Auction, Inglewood, CA
2004 Transforms,Millicent Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2003 Body Art, Art Coalition, North Hollywood, CA
2003 IRSA Benefit, The Former Andy Warhol Factory, New York, NY
2001 Assistants Exhibit, Smashbox Studios, Culver City, CA
2001 LA County Fair, Millard Sheets Gallery, Pomona, CA (2nd Prize, New Photography)
2001 The Body Modified, Circle Elephant Art, Los Angeles, CA
2000 Photo 12 Awards, Advertising Photographers of America, Los Angeles, CA
2000 Human Realist/Abstract, Circle Elephant Art, Los Angeles, CA
2000 Art Traffic, The Advocate Gallery, Gay & Lesbian Center, Los Angeles, CA
1999 Unstructured Landscapes, Circle Elephant Art, Los Angeles, CA
1999 Open Call, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, CA
1994 Kill Me, Eat Me, Love Me, Student Center Art Gallery, SFSU, CA
Film and Television
2008 Tube Tales, TV’s Real Stories, Force Four Productions, Canada (Interview)
2004 Six Feet Under, HBO, Los Angeles, CA (Featured commission)
2001 Meanix, The Creator’s Show, Los Angeles, CA (Interview)
Bibliography
BalaclavadotQ.com, “Artitst: David Meanix,” April 17, 2018
New York Times, Visual AIDS preview party photo, January 28, 2018, Sunday Styles
Vaczine Magazine, #3, December, 2016
Raluca Albu, “David Meanix: Face to Face,” Guernica, December 1, 2015
ImpulseGroup.com, “Face to Face: Art Challenging Reality,” December, 2015
VisualAIDS.org, “Face to Face, Photographs by David Meanix,” November, 2015
COVERS, because who needs content, bookazine, May, 2015 (Art Director)
Philip M. Miner, “David Meanix Talks Dancing Robots, Finding Freedom in Political Correctness, and Growing Up Queer in Pennsyltucky,” Huffington Post,November, 2013
Blouin ArtInfo International, “10 Examples of Pop Culture’s Take on Art,” December, 2012
Flaunt Magazine, Photosculpture Beauty Story, March, 2007
Golden Gate Xpress, “SFSU Alum Creates Photosculpture,” November, 2006
Synthesis Magazine, “Torn Between Three Loves,” August, 2006
NPR Calendar, 2007, (Commission)
Communication Arts, Photo Annual 46, August, 2005 (Winner)
Shana Ting Lipton, “Six Feet’s Muse” Salon.com, September, 10, 2004
Super Magazine, Edition No. 2, "Role Play," Winter 2004
Eyemazing Magazine, Issue 3, Cover Article, Summer, 2004
Works And Conversations, No. 7, August 2003