Mea Duke
Mea Duke is a Rhode Island-based interdisciplinary artist who specializes in representational painting and printmaking.
Duke’s interests come to the surface the more one uncovers the relationship between works within iconographic objects, their design, function, and materiality. Here, the line between “painting an object” and “painting as an object” is revealed. Rather than make this statement, Duke finds it more satisfying to point out these moments in iconic design language, time, and memory. By maintaining a slick, flattened and graphic aesthetic (one void of non-essential or locational details, like a non-religious icon), Duke seeks to depersonalize the represented objects so they may be more accessible to the viewer, allowing their own associative memories to enter the reading of the work.
Duke holds her MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and her BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Rhode Island. She has been an adjunct professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Montserrat College of Art, teaching fellow at SMFA at Tufts, and most recently a teaching assistant in printmaking, painting, and sculpture within the Art, Film and Visual Studies Department at Harvard University. Duke’s work has been exhibited in galleries throughout the Northeast, has been the recipient of numerous awards, and has been featured in several publications such as New American Paintings and Studio Visit Magazine among others.