Jonathan Meese is perhaps best known for his exuberantly growing installations and excessive performances. His sources range widely, from popular culture, films, ancient history, myth and sagas to controversial figures like Wagner, Caligula, Nero, Stalin and Hitler. Meese creates unsettlingly works that are at once humorous and profound. His use of German symbols and the Hitler salute in art has often excited controversy.

Jonathan Meese was born in 1970 in Tokyo and grew up in Ahrensburg near Hamburg. He lives and works in Berlin.

In the decade since the 1. Berlin Biennial (1998) he has exhibited extensively throughout the world. Solo exhibitions of Meese’s work have been organized by the Kestnergesellschaft in Hannover (2002), Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt (2004), Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami (2010), Gemeentemuseum in Den Haag (2011) and Museum der Moderne in Salzburg (2013). Since his huge show „Mama Johnny“ opened 2006 at the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Meese is proclaiming the Dictatorship of Art:

“The goal is clear. The goal is the dictatorship of art. The goal is that art rules the world”

Consistently producing stage designs for the theatre and opera over the last ten years, Meese is fascinated by the characters of Richard Wagner’s operas, exspecially the last one „Parsifal“. Expanding his output, the artist made several records togethers with electronic musician Tim Berresheim.