This week we welcome Hannah Antalek, an artist from Upstate New York living in Queens. She graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting, and continued her education through the NYC Crit Club.
Recent exhibitions include “Romantic Radiations” (2023) at The Yard in Brooklyn, and “Brief Encounters” (2023)at The Java Project in Brooklyn. She is currently working towards a solo exhibition at 5-50 Gallery in Queens, opening next month.
Artist statement:
My work explores an imaginary post-human landscape with roots in science fiction and environmental crisis. I primarily depict 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. Through these speculative scenes, my work questions not only the 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.
See more of Antalek’s work on her website and Instagram.
