(b. 1942, Bloemfontein, South Africa)

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John Meyer studied at the Johannesburg Technical College School of Art before joining an advertising agency. In 1967, Meyer settled in London, where he carried on his studies in art while working as a freelance illustrator. Meyer is regarded as the leading figure in the realist movement in southern Africa. Decidedly contemporary in his unique vision and a proponent of modernism in all its guises, Meyer has a considered commitment to representational painting.  Concerned with the complexities of visual perception and their solutions, his paintings are not mere representations of existing places and things, but exist as indelible retrospection, like total recall.

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Meyer describes his paintings as being 'made.' Each layer of tension or emotion is built up over a mental and physical process, creating a credible, charged and tangible event in each of his paintings. He presents us with strikingly real illusions, all distinctly familiar, yet ultimately invented. They are imagined archetypes rather than specific events. His most recent narrative genre, exploring the complex currents of human relationships, captivates his viewers. Few other artists inspire such commentary. Rarely are interpretations the same. Everyone has their own judgement and somehow the relationships continue to change with every inspection or even passing glance. There is fluidity, an evolving drama, and a very real atmosphere.

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He later developed these into a series of separate but related views of the same reaction. These 'Sequential Narratives' explore the nature of intimacy between men and women. The series reflects his interest in compositional interaction rather than conventional realism and displays his traditional visual hallmark - a tight theatrical control of the painted surface. Meyer is a master of staging, plot and lighting and there is a quality to the paintwork that reinforces the themes of emotional ambiguity between the protagonists in the paintings.

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More recently, Meyer completed a body of fifteen works set during the Anglo Boer War. His Lost in the Dust exhibition offered an intimate and compelling look at how war affects the lives of those swept up in it. The paintings are not historical, but a collection of completely fictitious, imaginative narratives, woven into a multi-layered realm that deals with the tragedy of war.

They are at once compelling, delicate, emotional and foreboding. Meyer was inspired to embark on this challenging journey by his ancestors, who had fought on both sides, allowing him to reflect on it from a neutral position. Set against the dramatic and hauntingly beautiful backdrop of the vast South African interior, the collection combines Meyer’s talents for landscape and narrative in a unique body of works.The entire collection, owned by one collector, was exhibited in Cape Town and Johannesburg in 2015. Thereafter it toured the United Kingdom, where it was shown in both London and Edinburgh at the Bonham’s Auction Houses.

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ARTIST’S STATEMENT

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‘One could say I'm obsessed with the magical properties of paint, with the process that allows for and unlocks the magic. It all depends on where you direct your energy. It's beyond me why any artist with talent would not want to pursue the mysterious world that lies within the possibilities of paint, the ultimate transformation of materials. Squeeze out a few lengths of pigment on a palette and transform them into the image of something.

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‘Because we’re not witness to the explorative process that is the private preserve of the artists creativity, we are not party to the experimental nuances and resulting struggle in the painting process, and that prevents us from completely understanding the artist's intent. How then are we to access this world of hidden complexities? If we accept that we see the world around us in various tones, shapes and patches of colour, rather than their defining contours, we realise that a single brushstroke can be anything it may suggest to us. The complex layering of painterly tones, placed in apparently random order, creates the stage for a personal search. Here we indulge in our need to escape from an increasingly intrusive world.'