Exploring the intersection of the personal, the conceptual, and the political in John Meade’s work, It’s Personal! is a reflection on some of the psychological and societal drivers that have informed the Melbourne-based artist’s life and art, curated to reflect various threads in his work relating to alterity, including queer culture, politics, and artistic experimentation.

John Meade, Silvia, 2014, cast aluminium, auto enamel, horsehair, linen thread, 52 × 48 × 18cm. Photograph: Andrew Curtis. Courtesy the artist, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne and McClelland Sculpture Park + Gallery, Victoria
“Through sculpture, video, and installation, John Meade draws relations between the metaphysical and surreal in the experience of contemporary life and culture. A refined and adventurous materiality defines his work, through sensuous forms and unexpected juxtapositions inflected by the erotic and uncanny,” says curator Simon Lawrie.
This major survey exhibition features three large new works alongside key sculptures from three decades of Meade’s art practice, installed across three expansive gallery spaces and outdoors at McClelland.

John Meade, The Puschelhockers (detail), 2018, fur, steel, acrylic paint, metallic screen print ink, hairclips, dimensions variable. Collection of the Art Gallery of Ballarat. Photograph: Andrew Browne
McClelland Sculpture Park + Gallery
2 December 2023 to 17 March 2024
Victoria