Wonderland Dreams by Alexa Meade is what happens when an artist takes over a Best Buy. The space that used to be a Best Buy now holds an alternate reality of colors, cakes, and lots of illusions. Inspired by the magic of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, visitors can wander through over 20 rooms full of Meade’s sensational installations.
The largest project by the artist to date opens Friday, October 7th, in New York, and runs through spring 2023. Meade is best known for painting Ariana Grande for her “God is a Woman” music video and the powerful “Color of Reality” video featuring Jon Boogz and Lil Buck, which won CNN’s Artist Impact Award.
Flaunt sat down with the artist during the show's opening celebration to talk about the completely hand-painted interactive art experience.
Why Alice in Wonderland?
My main body of artwork involves making 3D objects look like 2-dimensional paintings, and one of the big themes in Alice Adventures in Wonderland is this sense of disorientation and illusion, and I thought that that would be a great thing to bring my style of art to. Each of the scenes in this exhibit is directly inspired by the novel from the Madhatter Teaparty, where there are hundreds of teacups and teapots and cakes that the guests can pick up and touch and have tea parties with, to the Queen of Hearts throne, giant playing cards, and also just very disorienting illusionistic spaces.
What is the meaning behind your colorful practice?
I love colors. I can’t pick a favorite color. My favorite color is rainbow, and by that, I mean all the colors at once. So in this exhibit, it was pretty exciting to have areas that are blood red next to things that are hot lime green, and even areas that are black and white, creating that contrast.
Wonderland Dreams by Alexa Meade is what happens when an artist takes over a Best Buy. The space that used to be a Best Buy now holds an alternate reality of colors, cakes, and lots of illusions. Inspired by the magic of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, visitors can wander through over 20 rooms full of Meade’s sensational installations.
The largest project by the artist to date opens Friday, October 7th, in New York, and runs through spring 2023. Meade is best known for painting Ariana Grande for her “God is a Woman” music video and the powerful “Color of Reality” video featuring Jon Boogz and Lil Buck, which won CNN’s Artist Impact Award.
Flaunt sat down with the artist during the show's opening celebration to talk about the completely hand-painted interactive art experience.
Why Alice in Wonderland?
My main body of artwork involves making 3D objects look like 2-dimensional paintings, and one of the big themes in Alice Adventures in Wonderland is this sense of disorientation and illusion, and I thought that that would be a great thing to bring my style of art to. Each of the scenes in this exhibit is directly inspired by the novel from the Madhatter Teaparty, where there are hundreds of teacups and teapots and cakes that the guests can pick up and touch and have tea parties with, to the Queen of Hearts throne, giant playing cards, and also just very disorienting illusionistic spaces.
What is the meaning behind your colorful practice?
I love colors. I can’t pick a favorite color. My favorite color is rainbow, and by that, I mean all the colors at once. So in this exhibit, it was pretty exciting to have areas that are blood red next to things that are hot lime green, and even areas that are black and white, creating that contrast.