Abinadi Meza

Abinadi Meza (born 1977 in Austin, Texas) is a contemporary visual artist, sound artist, conceptual artist and filmmaker whose work references spatial and temporal perception, politics, and transformation. His paintings, sound art, videos, and installations have been presented at venues across North America and Europe,[1] including the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Dunaújváros, Hungary; FILE Festival, São Paulo, Brazil; MAXXI, Rome, Italy; Helicotrema Festival, Venice, Italy; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Team Titanic, Berlin; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland; Sonorities Festival, Belfast, Northern Ireland; FACT, Liverpool; La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain; Minneapolis Institute of Arts; and Lisbon Architecture Triennale, Portugal. Meza uses ephemeral materials such as text and sound to create transformative spaces[2] and explore relationships regarding individuals and social context.[3] As a young artist Meza studied Butoh with master teachers from Japan, Europe and South America.[4] Later he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls (1999); a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (2004); and an Master of Architecture degree from SCI-Arc, the Southern California Institute of Architecture, Los Angeles (2009).

Sound artist Abinadi Meza performing at Sinel de Cordes Palace, Lisbon Architecture Triennale, 2013

Sound performance, Austin, Texas (USA) 2012

Meza is currently a professor of Interdisciplinary Practices and Emerging Forms in the School of Art at the University of Houston. In 2014 he was awarded a Rome Prize in Visual Art by the American Academy in Rome.[5]

Meza has said he sometimes approaches sound "as material...it’s plastic – you can smear it, stretch it, sharpen it...I treat it like clay."[6]