Jonathan Zawada

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Jonathan Zawada
Born1981 (age 4344)
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Occupation(s)multidisciplinary artist, designer, music-video director
Years activeabout 2000–present
Notable workApocalypso cover art; Skin cover art; Metamathemagical Opera House projection; Tall Tales artwork and videos
AwardsARIA Award for Best Cover Art (2008, 2016)
Website zawada.art zawada.au

Jonathan Zawada (born 1981) is an Australian multidisciplinary artist, designer and music-video director whose work spans painting, digital image-making, installation and product design. [1] [2] He gained prominence creating record-sleeve artwork, winning ARIA Awards for The Presets' Apocalypso and Flume's Skin , and has exhibited internationally. Zawada designed the 2018 Metamathemagical projection for the Sydney Opera House sails [3] and created the CGI/AI artwork and videos for Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke's album Tall Tales (2025). [4]

Contents

Early life and career

Zawada was born in Perth, Western Australia, and is largely self-taught. [5] [6] He began professional graphic-design work in Sydney in the early 2000s. His first solo shows Semantic Webs (2005) and Boolean Values (2008) at Monster Children Gallery  reportedly sold out and later toured to Melbourne. [7] In late 2010 he relocated to Los Angeles and staged Over Time at Prism Gallery  a series of digital landscapes from manipulated graph data painted on linen. [8]

Collaborations

Zawada created the floral cover and full visual campaign for Flume's ' Skin , winning the 2016 ARIA Award for Best Cover Art. [9] The partnership continued with pop-up exhibitions in Los Angeles and Sydney and, in 2024, the immersive installation Every dull moment (EDM) at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. [10]

Zawada has collaborated with Mark Pritchard on MP Productions EP 1, [11] and along with Thom Yorke on Tall Tales (2025). For Tall Tales, Zawada designed the artwork and videos, a feature film version of which was screened on 8 May 2025  the day before the album's release. [11] [12]

Zawada created animated visualisers for Röyksopp's Profound Mysteries trilogy.

Critical reception

Writers note Zawada's blending of analog and digital, artificial and natural. [2] [13] [14] Stephen Todd, wrote in the Australian Financial Review that he sees the world as a "metamathemagical place where science and sensuality, the rational and the emotional, collide." [1]

For Pritchard and Yorke's multimedia project Tall Tales, Jazz Monroe at Pitchfork called Zawada the duo's "informal third member". [4] Fermín Cimadevilla at motion design website Motionographer wrote that the accompanying feature‑length film "evokes a distinct atmosphere  dreamlike yet disorienting" and stated that it defies cliche and AI art trends. [2]

Design press have likewise commended his album packaging. Megan Williams, writing in Creative Review, described the AI‑assisted sleeve for Pritchard's MP Productions EP 1 as "distorted and deformed to surreal effect" and "a bizarre collage of incongruous shapes and textures", adding that it "casts a wry glance at the very technologies that created it." [15]

Awards

Exhibitions

YearTitleVenueCityNotes / refs
2005Semantic WebsMonster Children GallerySydneyFirst solo show. [7]
2008Boolean ValuesMonster Children GallerySydney / MelbourneCatalogue also self-published. [7]
2010–11Over TimePrism GalleryLos AngelesData-driven landscapes. [8]
2014Touchingly UnfeelingCalm & Punk GalleryTokyoSolo exhibition. [18]
2022On Burning MirrorsCalm & Punk GalleryTokyoMachine-learning image generation. [19]
2016Flume × Jonathan Zawada Pop-UpSpace 15TwentyLos AngelesExhibition of Skin visuals. [14]
2018Metamathemagical – Lighting of the SailsSydney Opera HouseSydney15-minute projection mapped to Opera House sails. [3]
2023–24DXP²  Digital Transformation Planet21st Century Museum of Contemporary ArtKanazawa, JapanIncluded "Sacrifice, An Act of Permanence". [20]
2024Every dull moment (EDM)Art Gallery of New South Wales (Tank)SydneyImmersive installation with Flume. [10]

Publications

References

  1. 1 2 Todd, Stephen (7 May 2018). "Meet Jonathan Zawada, the creative lighting up Vivid Sydney". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 Cimadevilla, Fermín (18 April 2025). "ONLY ON Tall Tales – Jonathan Zawada defies cliche in Thom Yorke's anxious universe Pt 1". Motionographer. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  3. 1 2 "Lighting of the Sails 2018 – Metamathemagical". Sydney Opera House. 2018. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  4. 1 2 "Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke share video for new song "Gangsters"". Pitchfork. 9 April 2025. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  5. Gillespie, Katherine (23 September 2016). "Jonathan Zawada on Flume, the power of album art, and why electronic musicians like working with him". Vice. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  6. "Jonathan Zawada – Biography". zawada.art. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  7. 1 2 3 "Jonathan Zawada exhibitions". Dudley Wentworth Blog. 15 February 2010. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  8. 1 2 "Images from Jonathan Zawada's exhibit "Over Time" at PRISM". Rhizome. 4 April 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  9. 1 2 "Past winners – 2016". ARIA. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  10. 1 2 "Every dull moment (EDM)". Art Gallery of New South Wales. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  11. 1 2 Schube, Will (26 March 2025). "Thom Yorke and Mark Pritchard announce "Tall Tales" film screenings". FLOOD Magazine. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  12. Dwyer, Michael (2 May 2025). "An Australian artist turned Thom Yorke's music into art. Expect magic". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  13. Wanderlust, Mira (25 January 2024). "In Between Nature & Technology: Jonathan Zawada's Mesmerizing Universe". RED-EYE Magazine. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
  14. 1 2 "Flume and Jonathan Zawada's pop-up exhibition in LA". Cool Hunting. 15 November 2016. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  15. "Jonathan Zawada puts a twisted AI spin on Mark Pritchard cover art". Creative Review. 27 November 2020. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  16. "Past winners – 2008". ARIA. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  17. "J Awards of 2019". Triple J. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  18. "Jonathan Zawada solo exhibition "Touchingly Unfeeling"". Calm & Punk Gallery. 2014. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  19. "Jonathan Zawada Solo Exhibition "On Burning Mirrors"". Calm & Punk Gallery. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  20. "DXP Digital Transformation Planet – Towards the next interface". e-flux. 30 November 2023. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  21. "Sixpack France presents "Can the Drummer Give Some Back" – a fanzine by Jonathan Zawada". GLLTN. 14 April 2010. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  22. "GASBOOK 31: Jonathan Zawada". Gasbook Store. Retrieved 5 May 2025.