A WINDOW TO EUROPE: THROUGH ART & LITERATURE
FEATURING ANTONIO MCAFEE
November 28, 2021 - January 3, 2022
Plain Sight DC and the EU National Institutes of Culture in Washington, DC present A Window to Europe: Through Literature and Art, a series of short exhibitions featuring eleven visual artists from the Washington, DC region who will create work in response to eleven books by European writers, as part of the 2021 Europe Readr project. In this exhibition, Antonio McAfee creates work in response to Czech writer Marek Šindelka’s book Aberrant.
This exhibition is presented in partnership with EUNIC DC, the EU Delegation to the United States, and the Czech Embassy in Washington, D.C.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION: Drawing inspiration from Aberrant by Czech author Marek Šindelka, in which a pair of friends import invasive, phytophotodermatitis plants—and suffer fatal consequences—Antonio McAfee’s installation manipulates UV and artificial light to capture and fill the space with his own photographic field of flora. Phytophotodermatitis [Phyto (plant) - photo (light) - dermatitis (inflammation of the skin)] is a phototoxic inflammation caused when fluid from various common plants touches human skin and is then exposed to UV light, causing rashes, blisters, and burns to form. Silhouettes of these various toxic plants hang layered in the space; coated in a light-sensitive chemical and exposed to UV light, the panels are created from photographic transfers using a thick and bubbling gel medium that mimics the blisters caused by the toxic plants they reference. Temptingly touchable and bathed in both sunlight and manmade light, the artist asks those who engage with this work to consider the extent to which plants take advantage of human desire for self-propagation.
Antonio McAfee (b. Stuttgart, Germany) is a photographer based in Baltimore, MD. He received his BFA in Fine Art Photography (2007) from the Corcoran College of Art and Design. Shortly after, he earned his MFA in Photography (2009) from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2011, he received a Post-Graduate Diploma in Art in Arts and Culture Management from the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa). McAfee’s work addresses the complexity of representation by appropriating and manipulating photographic portraits of African Americans in the 19th century, funk and R&B musicians, and transitioned family members.
McAfee was featured in BmoreArt Magazine, Baltimore Magazine, The Washington Post, Washington City Paper, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun, Mission on Tenth published by California Institute of Integrated Studies, and catalogs published by the University of Pennsylvania and Corcoran College of Art and Design. He participated in residencies at Vis Arts (MD), Wesley Theological Seminary (DC), Elsewhere Museum (NC), The Contemporary Museum Artist Retreat (Baltimore), Can Serrat (Spain), and Vermont Studio Center.
Antonio was awarded grants from Foundation for Contemporary Art (NY), Art on the Vine (DC), Maryland State Arts Council, Civil Society Institute, Fulbright IIE, and Dedalus Foundation. His work has been exhibited at the Walters Art Museum, Kreeger Museum (DC), Institute of Contemporary Art (Baltimore, MD), Academy Art Museum (MD), Hamiltonian Gallery (DC), and The Print Center (PA). Antonio is currently an instructor at American University University.
Marek Šindelka (1984) studied cultural studies, dramaturgy and screenwriting. He regularly writes about literature for Hospodářské noviny. He is a poet and novelist, one of the most popular and translated Czech authors of the youngest generation. He has received numerous prestigious awards for his writing, including the Magnesia Litera award for prose.
A Window Through Europe
This exhibition is part of A Window to Europe: Through Literature and Art, a series of short exhibitions featuring eleven visual artists from the Washington, DC region who are creating work in response to eleven books by European writers, as part of the 2021 Europe Readr project. Featured artists are Hoesy Corona, Alanna Reeves, Mike Thron, Michal Gavish, Julie Wills, MK Bailey, Antonio McAfee, Emily Fussner, Stephanie Williams, Lionel Frazier White III, and Sobia Ahmad.
