Hermann Mejia

Hermann Mejía
Born (1973-04-25) April 25, 1973
Caracas, Venezuela
Nationality Venezuelan-American
Area(s) Artist
http://www.hermannmejia.com

Hermann Mejía (born 1973) is a New York artist with Venezuelan roots. He is a painter and sculptor who has been named by The Huffington Post as "one of 15 famous Venezuelan artists to know"[1]

Early life

Hermann Mejía started drawing at a very young age. His explorations and his virtuoso drawing abilities took him to study illustration and painting, and to the development of expression and character creation. He started collecting comics at age 13, and received his first artist's commission at 15, painting promotional graffiti for musical acts in Caracas. He studied at the Caracas Design Institute (Instituto de Diseño de Caracas). After graduating, he started his career in the fine arts with numerous exhibitions in his native Venezuela, both collective and solo. Growing recognition as a vanguard artist landed him the commission to design a series of Venezuelan postage stamps commemorating Pope John Paul II in 1996.[2]

"Yellow" - Watercolor/acrylic on paper - 23" x 36" (2012)

Career

Mejía is a prolific artist with a long career of solo and collective exhibitions of both paintings and sculptures, mostly in South America but also in the U.S. His style and technique have been linked to many influences including Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, the surrealists, and even Street art. In addition to his artistic career, he has successfully ventured into comic art and commercial art.

Upon having won the first prize in a sequential art contest, Mejia was awarded a trip to New York City, where he met artist George Pratt, who had been one of the Judges of the contest. Pratt took Mejía to the offices of DC Comics, where Mejía was offered a job almost instantly.

Woman's Head - 2012 - Acrylic on canvas 33" x 38"

Through DC, Mejía met Charlie Kochman, Publishing Editor for both DC and MAD Magazine (which was by then a publication of DC Comics), and received a first assignment for the April 1997 issue.

Mejía worked for the New York-based Mad Magazine while still living in Venezuela during the next two years. In 1999 Mejía moved to the United States.[2] He received a "Best in Magazine Feature" Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society in 2003.[3]

Nowadays, Mejia continues working unremittingly along his fine art production from his studio in Gowanus, Brooklyn, New York,, and occasionally on commercial illustration projects as well.

Selected Exhibits

"Entangled" - Acrylic on canvas, 48” x 72" (2013)

Selected Art works

Selected commercial works (Illustrations)

Cover image of Mad magazine No. 453 by artist Hermann Mejia (May 2005)

References

  1. ↑ "Happy Birthday, Simon Bolivar: Here's 15 Famous Venezuelan Artists To Know". Huffington Post. 24 July 2012.
  2. 1 2 Evanier, Mark (2002). Mad Art: A Visual Celebration of the Art of MAD Magazine and the Idiots who Create It. Watson-Guptill. pp. 257–260. ISBN 0-8230-3080-6.
  3. ↑ NCS Awards
  4. ↑ Irvine, Alex (2008). "The Books of Faerie". In Dougall, Alastair. The Vertigo Encyclopedia. New York: Dorling Kindersley. pp. 36–37. ISBN 0-7566-4122-5. OCLC 213309015.
  5. ↑
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