Maria Antelman, “Dream Rock,” 2024. Archival pigment print, 25in x 25in. Edition of 3. (Courtesy: the artist).

Maria Antelman presents Conjurer at Yancey Richardson, a first show for her at the renowned gallery in New York City. This exhibition is a culmination of the Greek artist’s work over the past five years. For a multifaceted artist of different talents, this body of work highlights her unique approach to photography. Merging images that offer juxtapositions of nature and the human body in various forms, the result is a collection of work made up of three-dimensional montages that provide a unique perspective. Mystical and mystifying, Antelman challenges us to rethink our understanding of the natural world in all its forms and its relation to the human body and sense of self.

Maria Antelman, “Hand, Plow,” 2024. Archival pigment print, 21 1/4 in x 25 in. Edition of 3. (Courtesy: the artist).

Antelman beautifully presents the intertwining of the physical form and objects that define nature in ways that are not sensible or logical. Through the work, we’re asked to see the metaphorical meaning behind the image and the object as a whole. Antelman meticulously deconstructs the body and then puts it back together, yet reshaped. It’s Antelman’s artistic way of presenting a deeper, more nuanced connection between the human body and nature, and a representation of how both can be shaped and formed. In the artwork, we see many iterations of this overarching theme. A tree trunk may interplay with a pair of legs, the roots of a tree interlock with human limbs, a hand presides over dunes on the sand, and rocks mirror against a human face. A pair of stones sits atop a woman’s breasts in Mother, Milk. Each visual representation entices the viewer to take a second glance and conjure a theory on what the artist is hoping to express through the work. It’s this intrinsic interconnectedness we’re subtly asked to both question and understand.

Antelman’s work has consistently focused on this very idea of intersection throughout her career. Working across different media, mainly sculpture, video, and photography, for the past 25 years, the artist has studied how the development of technology has played into our personal lives. Our experience of the world we live in and the nature we’re surrounded by is impacted by and through technology. Antelman understands how technology creates a new reality, which, when matched with science, disrupts and shifts our ability to connect and relate to the natural world. Her artwork is an attempt to find wholeness and value in this increasingly changing, ever-consuming, tech-obsessed new world we now find ourselves living in.

Maria Antelman, “Tree Talker,” 2023. Archival pigment print, 23in x 19 in. Edition of 3. (Courtesy: the artist)

Conjurer seeks to challenge this technology-driven society by focusing on the complexity of nature and the human body. The work reminds us to celebrate both and indulge in the mysterious, mystical elements of both. The combinations she presents are engaging, thoughtful, and quite beautiful in form. Surreal and ethereal, Conjurer is a body of work that presents uncommon combinations of form and nature.

A native of Greece, Antelman predominantly works with 35mm film photography, sculpture, sound, and animation. She focuses on the subject of technological progress from a distinctively feminine perspective. The connection to nature, our history, technological advances, and the true self.  Most recently her work has been presented at Melk in Olso, Foreland in Catskill, Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, at the Museum of Modern Art, the Visual Art Center in the University of Texas in Austin, at the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) in Athens, and at the Bemis Center in Omaha, Nebraska. She has been an artist in residence at Silver Arts Projects at the World Trade Center, at Pioneer Works, and the International Studio & Curatorial Program. Antelman holds an MFA in New Genres from Columbia University and a BA in Art History from the Complutense University in Madrid.