Aug 11, 2017

Meagan Boyd's NEON FAUVES Opens This Weekend In LA

Surrealist painter Meagan Boyd is launching her 'Neon Fauves' solo exhibition at LA's burgeoning Chinatown-based gallery Leiminspace on Saturday, August 12th.

Comprised of acrylic and watercolor paintings on canvas and paper, the exhibition serves as the latest iteration of the artist's bold investigations into spirituality, religious symbolism, and the Occult. We spoke to Meagan Boyd in order to get a little more insight into her work and her person.

Artist: Meagan Boyd

Age: 30

Born in: San Bernardino, CA

Based in: Los Angeles, CA

Can you remember a specific experience from your life that has shaped who you are and what you do as an artist today?

I remember the first time I started asking questions about art on a critical level, and I was maybe about 8 or 9 years old. My parents had an old set of encyclopedias- this was before the Google era, or at least we didn't have the internet in our home yet. I was just looking through one of the books and found a picture of a Picasso painting. I think it was an image of "The Dream", 1932. I was very intrigued by the idea of abstraction. I always loved coloring and drawing, but the idea of playing with abstracting an image seemed so exciting. I made a bunch of drawings that evening with my scented Crayola markers... haha... I think at that point I knew that making a drawing or a painting could be so liberating in that you can invent new ways of perceiving things.

“Touching on themes of faith, sexuality, rebirth, and inner-growth, 'Neon Fauves' is an imaginative exhibition that dwells in enchantment and possibility”

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Artists are some of the most politically/socially engaged people. Do you find yourself actively supporting a particular movement or cause?

I support anything that elevates equality and liberates humanity. There are many movements that I care deeply about, like women's reproductive rights, LGBTQ and rights of people of color and indigenous people. I stand in solidarity with the Native American's who were defending their land against the Dakota Access Pipeline, and I am definitely Anti-Trump. A few months ago many artists friends and I pledged to donate a percentage of our art sales for a certain period to help fund Planned Parenthood as they had lost so much government funding making it more difficult for women in certain states to receive care. I think its important for us to stand up and contribute to these causes.

Boyd's floating deities, known as "fauves" serve as mystical centerpieces within each work, elegantly draped in flora and fauna against a flat vacuous backdrop. While grounded in present day, she re-imagines our universe as a vivid supernatural playground, seamlessly incorporating primitive art traditions with postmodern sensibilities. Touching on themes of faith, sexuality, rebirth, and inner-growth, 'Neon Fauves' is an imaginative exhibition that dwells in enchantment and possibility, reminiscent of surrealist painters Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington, as well as Frida Kahlo's unique take on magical realism. •