Antonia Wright facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Antonia Wright
Antonia Wright by photographer Monica McGivern
Born	Antonia Wright 1979 (age 45–46) Miami, Florida, US
Nationality	Cuban - American
Occupation	Performance artist, poet, photographer, installation and video artist
Known for	"State of Labor" (2022)

Antonia Wright, born in 1979, is a talented Cuban-American artist from Miami, Florida. She creates art using many different forms, like videos, performances, installations, and sculpture. Her work often explores strong feelings, control, and how power works in society.

A magazine called Gotham Magazine recognized her in 2022. They named her one of "11 Artists Leading the Country's Cultural Conversation Right Now." This was for her art that talks about important social topics.

About Antonia Wright

Antonia Wright studied Poetry at The New School and graduated in 2005. She also trained in photography at the International Center of Photography in New York City, finishing in 2008.

Amazing Art Projects

Public Performances

Since 2009, Antonia Wright has been doing a project called "Are You OK?" For this, she goes to different cities and cries in public. She records how people react to her.

In 2013, Wright made a video called "Be". In this video, she is covered in 15,000 bees. She performs the slow, flowing movements of tai chi while the bees are on her.

Later that year, during Art Basel Miami, she did a performance called "Suddenly We Jumped (Breaking the Glass Ceiling)". She threw herself through sheets of glass at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens. This was inspired by the fast-moving art style called Futurism.

Unique Installations

In 2021, Wright showed her work called “Not Yet Paved” at Pérez Art Museum Miami. She turned a concrete mixer truck into a musical instrument. It played the song "Young, Latin, and Proud" by the musician Helado Negro.

Antonia Wright's art has been reviewed in famous publications like New York Times and Artforum. She also helps out on the boards of organizations like The Lotus House Shelter.

In 2022, she gave a public talk about her digital art project, Women in Labor. She discussed how feminist artists use their work to talk about important choices people make about their own bodies.

Art Shows and Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions

In 2016, she showed the video "Under the Water Was Sand, Then Rocks, Miles of Rocks then Fire". It showed her walking on a frozen lake and falling through the ice. This was based on a real experience she had as a child. The art show also had lights and jasmine plants.

Her 2017 art show Control at Spinello Projects used metal barriers. People had to sign a paper saying they understood the art might be risky. This art was inspired by the many barriers she saw in Brooklyn, New York.

In 2022, Wright's solo show “I came to see the damage that was done and the treasures that prevail” was at Spinello Projects in Miami. This show was her artistic response to challenges people face regarding choices about their own bodies.

In 2024, the Pérez Art Museum Miami featured Antonia Wright: State of Labor. This was a sound art piece. It was created to respond to a 2022 court decision in the United States. The art used sounds based on information about bodily autonomy and the freedom to make choices about one's own body. The sounds in her work are very personal. They show the real-life effects of the court decision. For example, her art talks about people needing to travel for care. It also covers difficult situations or unwanted pregnancies.

Where Her Art Lives

Antonia Wright's art is part of the permanent collections in several museums and art spaces. These include:

• Martin Z. Margulies collection
• El Espacio 23
• The Lotus House Shelter
• Pérez Art Museum Miami
• The Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach
• NSU Art Museum in Ft. Lauderdale

Awards and Recognition

In 2015, Antonia Wright was an artist-in-residence at Pioneer Works in Red Hook, Brooklyn. This means she lived and worked there for a time.

She also won the MasterMind award from the Miami New Times.

In 2022, during Miami Art Week, Antonia Wright and her friend Ruben Millares won the No Vacancy Juror’s Choice Award. They won for their art piece displayed on the beach near the Faena Hotel.

Wright also won the Ellies 2022 Creator Award. She was a finalist for the CINTAS Foundation Fellowship in 2021, which is for artists with Cuban heritage. In 2019-2020, she won a South Florida Cultural Consortium Award.

Helping Others Through Art

In April 2012, Antonia Wright started an artist-in-residence program at the Lotus House Shelter in Miami, Florida. She lived there for one month. This program helps artists connect with the community.