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Jonathan Zawada

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Jonathan Zawada
Born1981 (age 43–44)
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)
Websitezawada.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]

Early life and career

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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

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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

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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

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  • ARIA Award for Best Cover Art, for Apocalypso by The Presets (2008)[16]
  • ARIA Award for Best Cover Art, for Skin by Flume (2016)[9]
  • Nominee, J Award, Australian Video of the Year, for "Hi This Is Flume" (2019)[17]

Exhibitions

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Year Title Venue City Notes / refs
2005 Semantic Webs Monster Children Gallery Sydney First solo show.[7]
2008 Boolean Values Monster Children Gallery Sydney / Melbourne Catalogue also self-published.[7]
2010–11 Over Time Prism Gallery Los Angeles Data-driven landscapes.[8]
2014 Touchingly Unfeeling Calm & Punk Gallery Tokyo Solo exhibition.[18]
2022 On Burning Mirrors Calm & Punk Gallery Tokyo Machine-learning image generation.[19]
2016 Flume × Jonathan Zawada Pop-Up Space 15Twenty Los Angeles Exhibition of Skin visuals.[14]
2018 Metamathemagical – Lighting of the Sails Sydney Opera House Sydney 15-minute projection mapped to Opera House sails.[3]
2023–24 DXP² – Digital Transformation Planet 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa, Japan Included "Sacrifice, An Act of Permanence".[20]
2024 Every dull moment (EDM) Art Gallery of New South Wales (Tank) Sydney Immersive installation with Flume.[10]

Publications

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  • Can the Drummer Give Some Back (Sixpack France fanzine, 2010)[21]
  • GASBOOK 31 – Jonathan Zawada (Gas As Interface, 2019)[22]

References

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  1. ^ a b Todd, Stephen (7 May 2018). "Meet Jonathan Zawada, the creative lighting up Vivid Sydney". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  2. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b "Lighting of the Sails 2018 – Metamathemagical". Sydney Opera House. 2018. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  4. ^ a b "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. ^ a b c "Jonathan Zawada exhibitions". Dudley Wentworth Blog. 15 February 2010. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  8. ^ a b "Images from Jonathan Zawada's exhibit "Over Time" at PRISM". Rhizome. 4 April 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  9. ^ a b "Past winners – 2016". ARIA. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  10. ^ a b "Every dull moment (EDM)". Art Gallery of New South Wales. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  11. ^ a b 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. ^ a b "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.
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