KEN MEADS

TWILIGHT

CONSCIOUSNESS

OPENING RECEPTION SATURDAY, JULY 15TH 3-6PM

ON VIEW THROUGH AUGUST 4TH

Ken Meads’s paintings seem to want us to ask questions. What is happening? What is this about? Is there a meaning? The questions themselves might be what these works are exploring. Ken’s paintings are surreal and yet reference popular culture. They are personal, yet navigate public and universal issues.

Untitled 1 (Woman with Fish) begs the question “is this real?” What is going on in this painting? Is this woman being attacked by a live fish? Is it a fake fish and she’s just joking around? Does the second hand even belong to the woman in the painting? There’s something about the questions themselves that are intriguing. The whole idea of the unknown. The curious pondering. The chance to misunderstand and see things from an unexpected point of view. There is no correct conclusion, so is the explanation that I’ve written in my head even plausible, or do I like that it only makes sense in my imagination?

Untitled 2 (Fish Hand Monkey) seems more extreme and surreal. What we are looking at can not exist in the world we know, yet here it is in front of us to be pondered. Is this a fish with a hand attached? Is that a monkey sitting on the fish? Is it flying or under water? Is it calming or unsettling? It’s really quite simple. A flying fish attached to a human hand with a monkey sitting on top painted on a calm simple blue background. It’s calm. It’s not subtle. It’s not scornful. But why and what does it mean? The more you settle into this work, the more you become familiar with Ken’s mind and imagination. And whatever world this is coming from, it doesn’t seem too concerned that we’re not a part of it. It’s doing its best, using the tools it has and catching a ride where it can.

Untitled 3 (The Bachelorette) is a clear illustration of Ken’s collage style approach to painting. Ken describes his process saying “The images are altered mechanically, through Xeroxing, scanning, and projecting. Imagery is also transformed by any moods effecting drawing motor skills alone, and the choice and application of colors, with conscientious planning.” Meads goes on to say that the various elements of his paintings  “are primarily from collected print media and collage. After being removed from the original settings, they are placed in new ones as compositional layouts”. We most prominently see a woman in the foreground, seemingly sitting and looking up, directly at the viewer. She’s dressed to swim or work out in a revealing black and white striped top. Behind her are two figures with fairly opposite traits. They’re in a vintage cartoon style, the first with a classic Alpha-man face and flabby pear-shaped body, the second with a cartoon clown

head and chiseled body-builder physique. The figures are perhaps in competition for this woman, a smart looking successful unattractive man and a silly looking hot-bodied trophy fool. Meanwhile the woman is clearly ignoring them and looking at the viewer.

Behind them is the wall of a building with a partially open window and the complicated shadows of scraggly utility poles and snarling power lines. We don’t see any evidence of what is creating the shadows, just the dark shapes of blocked light. Is this a reference to all the things we don’t see in the world while we’re focused on getting something that’s out of reach?

Above the entire scene is a cartoon cherry, as if from Pac Man or a slot machine, perhaps representing a prize or something you can win. But winning can come at a cost. And like Ken said, “life’s not just a bowl of cherries”.

Untitled 4 (Honeymoon) and Untitled 5 (Bittermoon) seem to be related to one another, although they may have separate narratives and simply echo similar themes. They also both bring together several elements of Ken’s style. Pop culture, icons, retro-futurism, design, and whimsical juxtaposition. Ken described his philosophy saying “the purpose of my paintings is to represent transposed images, containing exuberant qualities, providing a type of poetic ambiance and sensationalism”. I think this is saying that he puts visual elments together in provocative ways that make a point or tell a story. There seems to be an obvious beauty and cleanliness in Untitled 4 (Honeymoon) and an ugly unhappy quality to Untitled 5 (Bittermoon).

Untitled 6 (Outside) shows an animal, possibly a monkey, appearing to look from the outside through a window at a of twin unborn humans. What does this mean? The monkey is questioning what it sees. Why is it outside this window? Is it pondering the future or itself? The scale of the painting also gives it some impact. Standing in front of it and looking at the careful and curious pose of the primate looking at its developing distant cousin at more than life size allows the viewer to truly engage with the work.

 

Untitled 7 (Duet) is a portrait of a woman holding a violin, sitting in front of a painting of an owl in flight, looking directly forward. At first glance it could be thought to be a window with a live owl about to fly through it, but the riveted pattern on the gold frame gives it away to be a painting within the painting. The woman holds the bow in her right hand and has her left hand under her chin, holding her violin under her right arm. She’s serious and relaxed, but sort of timid looking. What music does she play and what music does she want to play?

Untitled 8 (Woman and Goose) is a great example of Meads’s simple juxtaposition of images to achieve a certain point. The goose is totally absurd and distracting next to the woman, and the subjects are totally contrary or inadvertent to eachother. But that is clearly the point. The woman is facing away from us in her spaghetti string top and Jordache denim jeans, turning to look over her shoulder directly at the viewer with piercing blue eyes and a seductive stare. Next to her is a smiling goose, totally distracting from whatever the woman has in mind. You can’t help but look at the goose. How can you not? It’s cute and charming and silly, and even if you look at the woman and down at her tight fitting Jordache jeans, you keep looking back at the lovable goose.

Untitled 9 (Doesn’t She Look Familiar?) stands out as being surreal but without any external elements, simply the distortion of the figure. We see a woman staring at us, with an exaggerated and distorted face. The distortion makes the woman seem approachable and somewhere between vulnerable and disbelieving.

- Statement from the artist

“The purpose of my paintings is to represent transposed images, containing exuberant qualities, providing a type of poetic ambiance and sensationalism.

A network of communication is coordinated within the design elements and within my mind to unleash a disembodied performance on canvas.

The transposed images depicted in the paintings are a variation of transmuted languages as a result of transmigration of thought and imagery. The images are altered mechanically, through Xeroxing, scanning, and projecting. Imagery is also transformed by any moods effecting drawing motor skills alone, and the choice and application of colors, with conscientious planning. The order of restructuring of elements continues throughout the entire process of painting.

The images, which are selected, are primarily from collected print media and collage. After being removed from the original settings, they are placed in new ones as compositional layouts, prior to painting and often during the painting process. These transformational elements are applied both intuitively and conscientiously in a process of implicating a particular motif for each painting.

Usually the finality is provocative, serving aesthetic exuberant purposes, within the theme I'm working on.

A telepathic interplay between the subject elements takes place in my designs, through a choice selection of anonymous, popular, and dreamlike subject arrangements. The elements are modified and juxtaposes in an improvisational fashion, until a statement is accomplished, and the painting is considered finished. The finality is spontaneous unleashing of a disembodied spirit in performance.

Many of the outcomes, I do not deny, border on the ridiculous, and others harbor a mystical seriousness.

An emotionally charged hyperbole must be authenticated to accentuate the productions. The final synthesis manifests in portrayals of melodramas, the final synthesis manifests in portrayals of melodramas, seemingly twilight consciousness, suggestions of mysticism, intoxication, slapstick humor, and situational comedies.”

 

Kenneth Meads

by M. O’Shea

Kenneth Meads, is primarily from the Northeastern USA. He has been engaged in various kinds of art much of his life. Meads has exhibited occasionally in New York City art galleries. He rarely solicits his art, but does not turn down good worthwhile opportunities.
Ken Meads was born in Akron, Ohio and [was] adopted when he was an infant. Living a rather dysfunctional childhood, he spent most of his life near the Atlantic Ocean, where he enjoyed swimming. He began drawing and painting in his early twenties for emotional relief. He spent around 14 years painting in New York City.
In NYC, Meads met Andy Warhol on several occasions, but wasn’t a member of the Warhol circle, nor wanted to be. He liked Warhol, who gave him some small gifts, but felt bad that Andy had already painted all of the things Ken liked. Meads later was introduced to Valerie Solanis who, had earlier shot Warhol.
 
She lived in the neighborhood at the time. Meads became traumatized after having some friends murdered and dismembered in buildings he lived in. The detectives always came and questioned him after the murders. This was after he moved away from the same building he was living, when Sid Vicious (Punk Rocker) muerdered his girl friend, Nancy there. Ken liked Nancy, who would lend him Sid’s bass guitar, while Vicious was passed out on drugs. Meads got involved in a punk band but soon quit, becuase he did not like the music they were playing.
Meads remembers walking down Broadway eating a Chinese pork bun, when a truck ran over some guys head, squashing his braings all over the street. All this and more, had a profound effect on his paintings. Ken Meads likes excitement, he got into his share of fights, but now cherishes solitude more than anything.
Ken Meads’s paintings possess much personal symbolism, and are at times allegorical. He was impressed by art he saw in Asia, Europe, and the USA. Meads always enjoys looking at good art, especially that of the Masters, Dada, Pop Surrealism, and other modern art.
Ken Meads’s paintings are tinged with humor, and are often a bit macabre. That is obviously the result of a very unusual, exotic, tragic life style. “At times, I wish I could do paintings of landscapes and normal things. Before doing that I’d have to get a lobotomy, and hell if I’ll do that. My paintings are about how life isn’t just a bowl of cherries.”
Ken Meads has done several painting series. These paintings involve a variety of metaphorical and satirical themes. Ken’s series include: “Invasions”, “Alienated Souls”, “Misfits”, Discovering Miracles”, “Sexual Innuendos”, and “Watchful Eyes”.
 

Ken Meads passed away in 2019. He is lovingly remembered by his wife and community for his profound thoughtfulness and ingenious creativity.