Hannah Antalek 1991

Vit à Brooklyn NY. Travaille dans Brooklyn NY.

Invité a:

Marian Cramer Projects

client

Hannah’s work explores an imaginary post-human landscape with roots in science fiction and environmental crisis. She primarily depicts engorged mushroom-like daisies that have undergone a hypothetical evolution in reaction to a changing world. Mysteriously backlit in vivid tones, each color cast is evocative of an unknown light source that might insinuate the presence of a second sun, a foreign moon, the heat or chill of a nearby chemical glow. Through these speculative scenes, her work questions not only the implications of humanity’s impact on nature, but the capacity for adaptation and resilience across all life forms.
My work explores an imaginary post-human landscape with roots in science fiction and environmental crisis.

The characters in my work most often take the shape of engorged daisies that appear more mycological than floral, suggesting a means of subterranean communication, and a broader interconnected network. Neighboring plant forms are an amalgamation of real and imagined botanicals that have undergone a hypothetical evolution in reaction to a changing world. Mysteriously backlit in vivid tones, each color cast is evocative of an unknown light source that might insinuate the presence of a second sun, a foreign moon, the heat or chill of a nearby chemical glow.

In developing my own pseudo-scientific imagining of the future forest floor, the study of fungi has provided endless inspiration to my practice. Fungi have survived four different extinction events. In the most devastating conditions, fungi have endured as environmental architects, charting the way forward for the subsistence of neighboring plant life by regenerating the soil and sharing nutrition through an underground mycelial network. Mushrooms have even been found growing in sites with high radioactivity and on a spacecraft traveling through space. Radiotrophic mushrooms were discovered growing inside the cooling waters of the nuclear reactors at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, turning the water black.
I imagine the black plant forms in my drawings to have arisen from similarly inhospitable environments. Perhaps they have emerged from the Newtown Creek, an EPA Superfund site less than a half mile from my studio in Greenpoint. At the bottom of the Newtown Creek is a thick black sediment of petroleum, raw sewage, and other contaminants referred to as “black mayonnaise”. What if viable plant life were to evolve from that sludge? What if like some mushrooms have been proven to do, they digested heavy metals and consumed plastic waste?

Or, what if their coloration came from a mutated form of photosynthesis allowing plants to absorb all available wavelengths of light, rendering them black instead of green?

What if in light of extreme temperatures plants could melt back into a primordial ooze?

To capture the tangibility of these thought experiments, I begin my drawings and paintings by first constructing a small diorama model to inform the final piece’s composition and lighting structure. The sculptures I create to populate these fictitious landscapes are made from either compostable and recyclable materials like paper mache, cardboard, and paper, or transform non-recyclable discarded refuse like styrofoam and plastic film into armature for new creations. With each new diorama, elements of previous scenes are repurposed so that each new artwork has a relationship to the last, creating an immersive and expansive alternative world.

Through these speculative scenes, my work questions not only the positive and negative implications of humanity’s impact on nature, but the capacity for adaptation and resilience across all life forms. With humankind’s natural predilection towards fatalism and apocalyptic end-time predictions, these works are a reminder of nature’s cyclical metamorphosis and the seasonality of change.

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Oeuvres de Hannah Antalek

expositions

Nicolás Romero Escalada, Bas van Wieringen, Hannah Antalek, BIJIJOO ( Michael Horne), Hideki Iinuma, ARJEN, Ron DeFelice

27 mar - 30 mar 2025, Rotterdam, Nederland

CV

Hannah Antalek (b. 1991; Albany, NY) is an artist living in Queens, NY and working in Brooklyn, NY. In 2013, she graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in painting, and continued her education through the New York City Crit Club. Her recent solo exhibition Superseed (2023, 5-50 Gallery; Queens, NY) was reviewed in Whitehot Magazine and Two Coats of Paint. Hannah’s first international solo exhibition, Warm Lurch, opened in June 2024 at Tini Mini Room (Dordrecht, NL) in collaboration with 5-50 Gallery. Recent group exhibitions include A Sense of Space (2024, Abri Mars; New York, NY), Cereal Isle (2024, Marquee Projects; Bellport, NY), and High-Stakes presented by Lisa Boudet (2023; Paris, FR). Hannah has been an artist in residence at The Moosey Residency (2024), The Studios of Key West (2018), and The Vermont Studio Center (2016).

HANNAH ANTALEK

hannahantalek.com / @hannah_antalek / [email protected] / 518.225.1292

Home: 41-12 39th Place #C5 Sunnyside NY 11104
Studio: 276 Greenpoint Ave #1304 Brooklyn NY 11222

Education
NYC Crit Club / 2018-2021
Rhode Island School of Design / BFA Painting / 2009-2013

Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions

2025
121 Art Space / Taipei TW
2024
Warm Lurch / Tini Mini Room x 5-50 Gallery / Dordrecht NL
2023
Superseed / 5-50 Gallery / Queens NY
2022
Future Fair presented by 5-50 Gallery / New York NY (with Rachel Hayden)

Group Exhibitions

2025
Art Rotterdam presented by Marian Cramer Projects / Rotterdam NL
2024
A Sense of Space / Abri Mars / New York NY
Cereal Isle / Marquee Projects / Bellport NY
2023
Rotational Invitational / Marquee Projects / Bellport NY
High-Stakes / Lisa Boudet / Paris FR
Gloop / Spring/Break Art Show presented by 5-50 Gallery / New York NY
Romantic Radiations / The Yard / Brooklyn NY
Brief Encounters / Curated by Good Naked at The Java Project / Brooklyn NY
2022
Future Fair Holiday Market presented by 5-50 Gallery / online
Exhibitionist / House of X / New York NY
2021
Future Fair Holiday Market presented by 5-50 Gallery / online
Jungle Jinx / 5-50 Gallery / Queens NY
Heroes / SPRING/BREAK Art Show / New York NY
Abracadabra / Gobstopper Gallery / online
Mail / Olympia / New York NY
Drawn In Books / Tomato Mouse / Brooklyn NY
2020
A Moment Materialized / Brooklyn Navy Yard / online
Darkest Before Dawn / Ethan Cohen Gallery / Beacon NY
Life In A Pressure Cooker / Young Space / online
FRC7 / Flat Rate Contemporary / online
Repossessed / SPRING/BREAK Art Show / New York NY
Small Works Big Change / Brooklyn Navy Yard / online
Hot Paper / GIFC / online
2019
While Supplies Last 6 / Bellevue Arts Museum / Bellevue WA
2015
Joseph Gross Gallery / New York NY

Residencies
The Moosey Residency / March 2024
The Studios of Key West / September-October 2018
The Vermont Studio Center / October-November 2016

Awards
New York Foundation for the Arts, Queens Art Fund: New Work Grant / 2023
Honorable Mention, MyMA Artist Grant / June 2023
Manhattan Graphics Center Scholarship / 2019
The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant / 2016
Vermont Studio Center Artist’s Merit Grant / 2016

Projects
Five on the First / The Art Kollective / September 2024
Summer Viewing Program / Park Avenue Furnishings / August 2024
The Drawing Exchange / 2019, 2020, 2021
Brooklyn Navy Yard Public Art Project / 2018, 2021
NYC Crit Club Flatfile / 2020
Got It For Cheap / 2017, 2019, 2020

Publications
“Journeying Through Hannah Antalek’s Surreal Landscapes” / by Lisa Boudet, Overstandard Magazine / 2024
Meet Hannah Antalek / online interview with Shoutout LA / 2024
“Hannah Antalek at 5-50 Gallery: Where Dreams Come True” / by Jan Dickey, Whitehot Magazine / 2023
“Hannah Antalek’s crystal ball: Magical and disconcerting” / by Heather Drayzen, Two Coats of Paint / 2023
Epicenter NYC / online feature by Nitin Mukul / 2023
ECOTONE, Volume 1 / edited by Ray Hwang, published by Cram Books / 2023
Mail / exhibition catalog published by Olympia / 2021
Friend of the Artist, Volume 13 / 2021
“Four Drawings by Hannah Antalek” / by Jennifer Mawby, Vantage Art Projects, 2020 Q4 / 2020
Inside Joke, Volume 1 / published by Lucky Risograph / 2020

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