Depicting and Representing the Beauty of Womanhood: Meet Painter Meg Gallagher

Rapture

By Al Gord

Meg Gallagher is a visual artist and designer from the south island of New Zealand. Growing up in the Otago region, Meg was exposed to the rugged, beautiful terrain. The natural beauty of this area proved to be an inspirational environment for Meg to harness her creative talents. In addition, she benefited from the cultural experiences of the area, a perk associated with her father running the city’s art centre. Following her formative years Meg attended university, where she explored and experimented with her creative interests and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree of Fashion Design.

Early on Meg’s talent in the fashion industry was noticed. She was named as “One to Watch” by Vogue Italia and she earned a scholarship to study at Milan’s Europea Instituto de Design. These experiences afforded her the opportunity to work with some of the biggest brands and names in fashion. It has been during her time as denim designer for street wear label “Ksubi” that her designs have been seen on the likes of Gigi Hadid, Jared Leto, Travis Scott and Kendal Jenner. While continuing to work in the fashion world, Meg has also returned to her fine arts roots, with a focus on painting.

Now living in Sydney, Australia, Meg is inspired by contemporary fashion, colour experimentation and the female form – something which comes from her background in dance as well as her experience with motherhood. Working with muted tones and denim as a canvas, Meg’s layered palette and textured applications allow her to create unique paintings; ones which celebrate the nude female form. Through these techniques, Meg develops powerful images that reflect, honour and depict women as the beautiful and sensual phenomenon that grace society.

Through her art, Meg conveys the rare moments women get to be quiet and still within their body. As a very busy mother and creative Meg finds herself using her body as a “machine” as if it’s a tool to get her through the relentless day of ever building “to do’s”. After these hectic days she likes to step back and reconnect with herself. This is the role she hopes her art will play with her buyers. She wants her art to get viewers to pause and take a moment to consciously stop and let themselves actually feel their own body, take a moment to connect the brain to all of the various body parts, from head to toe and everything in between.

In a society and in the world of art where there still is censorship when it comes to the human body, Meg is creating to empower women to be proud of who they are. The response to her nudes, through both commissions and collaborations is something Meg finds incredibly rewarding. Connecting with like-minded individuals, sometimes those least seemingly, continues to inspire Meg on a daily basis.

Her elegant works can be seen on her website and Instagram.