Maria Antelman: Mechanisms of Affection

Merging the digital and analog through photomontage, sound installation, sculpture, and animation, New York-based artist Maria Antelman probes the intersections between the body, photography, computers, and cyberspace. Drawing on the aesthetics of early IBM advertising, which marketed machines and women as objects of desire, Antelman explores the space between the real and its representation in the digital age. In her work, machines observe, adapt, and respond to the conditions of human nature, reflecting those conditions back onto their users. Looking at digital space as an extension of ourselves, Mechanisms of Affection examines the cultural impulse to anthropomorphize technology, automate sensation, simulate connection, and impersonate vision.

Maria Antelman: Mechanisms of Affection is organized by Taylor Bradley, PhD Candidate in Art History and 2018-19 Visual Arts Center Curatorial Fellow.

This exhibition is made possible by support from the Center for the Study of Modernism, the Department of Radio-Television-Film at The University of Texas at Austin, and 31 individual donors who contributed to a HornRaiser campaign in July 2019.

Special thanks to the Photography and Media Lab in the Department of Art and Art History for their generous assistance with this project.

Bio

Maria Antelman (b. 1971, Athens, Greece) is based in New York. She studied Art History at the Complutense University in Madrid and received her MFA from Columbia University (2011). Her work has been included in solo and group exhibitions at Helena Anrather Gallery, NY (2019); Pioneer Works, Brooklyn (2018); National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (2018); Benaki Museum, Athens (2018); John Jay College, NY (2018); Marinaro Gallery, NY (2018); Melanie Flood Projects, OR (2017); Kunstmuseum, Bonn (2017); Stony Brook University, NY (2014); ApexArt, NY (2014); The Agency, London (2013) amongst others. She has been awarded production grants from the Onassis Foundation USA, the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, and J.F. Costopoulos Foundation. She has held residencies at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn and International Studio and Curatorial Program, NY.

About the Curator

Taylor Bradley (b. 1986, Los Angeles, CA) specializes in modern and contemporary art. Bradley’s research concerns and curatorial practice touch on work by such artists as Anna Atkins, Eugène Atget, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Ed Ruscha, and Eleanor Antin. She received her BA in Art History with distinction from Boston University (2008) and her MA (2012) and PhD (2019) in Art History from The University of Texas at Austin.

Publications

A conversation between Maria Antelman and curator Taylor Bradley