BIO
Carlie Antes is a native Nebraskan, currently residing in Syracuse, NE with her husband and three children. In 2023, Antes was appointed as Assistant Professor of Practice and 3D Foundations Coordinator at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It is there that she received both her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics (2020) and Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture (2023).
Her work explores complex interpersonal relationships set alongside human inventions—utilizing the physical matter of her lived experiences as visual placeholders for people, places, memories, and emotions. With her work and process deeply rooted in handcraft, Antes has taught a number of workshops that incorporate hand-weaving techniques using wire as the primary medium.
Carlie has received the Francis William Vreeland Scholarship Award (2017), is a two-time recipient of Jean R. Faulkner Memorial Art Exhibition Awards (2017, 2020), and was granted the 2020 and 2023 Dan & Barbara Howard Creative Achievement Awards. Carlie has previously served on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Teaching Council and co-chaired the Graduate Student Assembly's Committee for Academic Affairs.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work explores concepts pertaining to loss, longing and the growth and adaptation that can occur as a result of traumatic circumstances. In order to facilitate a hopeful and optimistic dialogue in relationship to that which is often derived of the melancholy, I draw upon biological and ecological structures—comparing and contrasting them with human inventions and behavior. I find common threads in these seemingly disparate constructs through their shared ability to adapt—facilitating future growth and forging new relationships with their surroundings.
Wire, beads, wool, hair, fabric, and clay serve as metaphors for people, places, and emotions. Objects derived from nature are occasionally introduced, speaking directly to systems created by the living world. Materials are broken down and addressed as cellular structures, only to be thoughtfully reconstructed. Through the meticulous assembling, layering and weaving of individual components—objects ultimately manifest as interdependent sculptural networks. Varying degrees of transparency and porousness can often be found throughout the work, allowing objects to appear as a mere whisper or shadow of their past occurrence or future potential. This further serves to articulate and emphasize the methods at which ecological, biological and social constructs can both function and fail—and how through these instances, there may also be facilitation for growth, evolution, and stability.