Lugano
Born in Tokyo in 1970 and having moved to Germany in the mid-1970s, Jonathan Meese is one of the most active German artists on the contemporary scene. He began his studies at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg, where he was influenced by the performative work of Franz Erhard Walther.
His first public breakthrough came in 1998 with an installation presented at the inaugural Berlin Biennale. Since then, Meese has taken part in numerous exhibitions across Germany, London, Paris, and beyond, establishing himself as a central figure in the international art world. His first major solo exhibition in the United States was held in 2011 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, showcasing a wide range of works that spanned collage, sculpture, and the use of symbolic, hieroglyph-like textual elements.
Meese’s artistic practice is total, multidisciplinary, and anarchic. His works include paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, artist books, stage sets, costumes, poetry, and choreographies. He is also well known for his theatrical performances and collaborations with other artists and musicians, such as Tim Berresheim, Daniel Richter, and composer Karlheinz Essl, culminating in visionary installations exhibited at venues like the Essl Museum in Vienna. In 2010, he designed the set for the opera Dionysos at the Salzburg Festival, confirming his ability to translate visual language into both operatic and theatrical contexts.
Meese’s work confronts some of the most unsettling themes in German history and culture without compromise, seeking to strip ideological symbols of their power through ironic and visionary provocation. The artist weaves together references to politics, cultural memory, mythology, literature, and cinema, crafting an aesthetic that is both humorous and disturbing. His distorted, unsettling forms evoke archetypes situated between individuality and universality. In many of his works, self-portraiture becomes a mask—a means to explore the nature of power and its mechanisms. Elements of German Expressionism, outsider art, comic book and horror film aesthetics all fuel his iconography, contributing to the creation of dense, complex, and deeply personal narratives.
Today, Meese’s works are held in major public and private collections around the world, including the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, the Rubell Family Collection and the De La Cruz Collection in Miami, the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.) in Ghent, and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. Meese lives and works between Berlin and Hamburg.