16 Facts About Jonathan Meese

Jonathan Meese is mainly concerned with personalities of world history, primordial myths and heroes.

Jonathan Meese was born as a third child of his parents, a German and a Welsh, in Tokyo, Japan.

Jonathan Meese's father, the banker Reginald Selby Meese, born in Newport, lived in Japan until his death in 1988.

Since Jonathan Meese only spoke English after his return to Germany, he had difficulties adapting.

Jonathan Meese studied with Franz Erhard Walther, Daniel Richter, Martin Kippenberger, Horst Janssen, Vicco von Bulow alias Loriot, and Otto Waalkes at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg from 1995 to 1998, but he left the university without a degree.

Jonathan Meese exhibited for the first time at the Frankfurter Kunstverein gallery in a group exhibition.

Since 1998 Jonathan Meese has attracted attention with installations, performances and other actions on the art scene.

At the Berlin Biennale, curated by Klaus Biesenbach, Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Nancy Spector, Jonathan Meese met a broad public.

Jonathan Meese presented the installation Ahoi der Angst, a photo-collage dedicated to the Marquis de Sade, which was to be considered later in the work of Jonathan Meese.

From 1999, Jonathan Meese participated in a variety of national and international group and individual exhibitions.

In 2008 Jonathan Meese created "Marlene Dietrich in Dr No's Ludovico-Clinic ", an immersive multimedia installation within The Watermill Center on Long Island, New York.

The Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami presented in 2014 the first major solo museum exhibition in the United States for Jonathan Meese, which included Meese's paintings that mix personal hieroglyphics and collage, installations, ecstatic performances, and a powerful body of sculptures in a variety of media.

Jonathan Meese: Sculpture was organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami and curated by Director and Chief Curator Bonnie Clearwater.

In June, 2013 Jonathan Meese was accused and brought before the German Court for performing the Hitler salute in his stage performance "Megalomania in the Art World" which was organized by Der Spiegel in Kassel.

Jonathan Meese is represented by Galerie Templon in Paris, David Nolan Gallery in New York, Tim van Laere Gallery in Antwerp, Galerie Krinzinger in Vienna and Sies + Hoke in Dusseldorf.

Jonathan Meese has worked collaboratively with the painters Jorg Immendorff, Albert Oehlen, Tim Berresheim, Daniel Richter, Tal R, and the composer Karlheinz Essl.