Artist Database

“One could say I’m obsessed with the magical properties of paint, with the process that allows for and unlocks the magic. It all depends on where you direct your energy … The complex layering of painterly tones, placed in apparently random order, creates the stage for a personal search. Here I indulge my need to escape from an increasingly intrusive world.” –John Meyer

John Meyer studied at the Johannesburg Technical College’s School of Art before working in advertising and as a freelance illustrator. He has maintained a considered commitment to representational painting and presents us with strikingly real illusions, all distinctly familiar, yet ultimately invented. They are imagined archetypes rather than specific events. His most recent ‘Sequential Narratives’ genre explores the complex currents of human relationships in series of separate but related views of the same reaction.

Other series include Lost in the Dust, fifteen works set during the Anglo Boer War; Mandela, a Life’s Journey, sixteen works on the life of Nelson Mandela; Elizabeth, A Sovereign’s Journey, eleven paintings on the life of Queen Elizabeth II; Migrations, exploring the journeys of the various peoples who immigrated to South Africa; and an as yet untitled series on the looming global climate crisis.

Meyer has exhibited extensively both locally and internationally and his work is included in the following collections: Anglo American, Johannesburg; ARA Services, Philadelphia; Cargill Inc, Minneapolis; ExxonMobil, Dallas; Lloyds, London; Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, Cape Town; and Standard Bank, Johannesburg.

Adapted from the artist's website https://www.johnmeyerpaintings.com, accessed 7 September 2021.