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Anthea Black

Portrait of artist Anthea Black smiling with both hands raised in a gallery space surrounded by prints and artworks.

Drawing

Associate Professor, California College of the Arts · BFA · Class of 2002

antheablack.com/

Anthea Black (b. 1981) is a Canadian artist, art publisher, and curator based in San Francisco and Winnipeg. Her studio work takes the form of artist’s books, limited-edition publications, drawing, and textiles to address queer-feminist histories, materiality, and archives. Black has exhibited in Canada, the US, Korea, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway, and her artist’s books and artist publishing work are represented in over 65 library special collections and galleries.

Black’s curatorial work includes “The Embodied Press: Queer Abstraction and the Artist’s Book,” “Deeper Reading: three Bay Area book artists,” for the National Museum of Women in the Arts Women to Watch program, “The Joyful Body of the Word: Betsy Davids and the Book,” “No Place: Queer Geographies on Screen,” “PLEASURE CRAFT,” and “SUPER STRING” and she has held roles at Stride Gallery, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, and Art Gallery of Alberta.

Black’s writing on contemporary art, craft, and performance appears in numerous publications, and she is co-editor of “The New Politics of the Handmade: Craft, Art and Design” and “HANDBOOK: Supporting Queer and Trans Students in Art and Design Education.” Recent essays include “In the making: Queer Publishing and Transpedagogies,” for the Art Journal special issue on Trans Visual Culture, and “Will the real queer ceramics please stand up?” in A Handmade Assembly from Owens Art Gallery and Struts Gallery, and “Women in Print: feminism’s collective artist’s book spaces,” in Art and Feminisms: Histories, Methods, and Legacies from Routledge. Black’s third book, “The Embodied Press: queer liberation and the artist’s book,” focuses on artist’s books by queer and transgender artists from the 1950s to today.

Grieve Weave 19(dull ache)Cléo’s trenchcoat pocket 2022-2025, artist book with etching and monoprint on various papers: Somerset, and Coventry Rag, ink on linen, Asahi mohair, Iris rayon and found bookcloth.
Grieve Weave 9 (overlapping grief weave) Grieve Weave 9 (overlapping grief weave) / Bauhaus wallpaper Ouija tea set. 2022-2025, artist's book with etching and monoprint on various papers: Somerset, BFK Rives, and Coventry Rag, Asahi mohair, Iris rayon and found bookcloth.
The New Politics of the Handmade. The New Politics of the Handmade: Craft, Art and Design (2020, Bloomsbury Visual Culture Editions) Editors: Anthea Black and Nicole Burisch Contemporary craft, art and design are inseparable from the flows of production and consumption under global capitalism. The New Politics of the Handmade features twenty-three voices who critically rethink the handmade in this dramatically shifting economy.
The Embodied Press The Embodied Press: queer abstraction and the artists’ book, Curated by Anthea Black Artist's books are a perfect form to experience the pleasures and politics of the handmade. Saturated ink spreading across a page. Layer upon layer. Looking that quickly opens to all senses. The Embodied Press features works by queer and transgender artists, from graphic novels and collage-works to bold experiments with letterpress, screenprint, video, performance, and riso.

Anthea Black's Work

Anthea Black's Work Open sculptural artist's book with pale pink circular covers and a woven black-and-white textile spine cascading over the edge.
Grieve Weave 19(dull ache)Cléo’s trenchcoat pocket 2022-2025, artist book with etching and monoprint on various papers: Somerset, and Coventry Rag, ink on linen, Asahi mohair, Iris rayon and found bookcloth.
Anthea Black's Work Wall-mounted artist's book with three rounded pink and purple panels joined by a woven black-and-white central section.
Grieve Weave 9 (overlapping grief weave) Grieve Weave 9 (overlapping grief weave) / Bauhaus wallpaper Ouija tea set.

2022-2025, artist's book with etching and monoprint on various papers: Somerset, BFK Rives, and Coventry Rag, Asahi mohair, Iris rayon and found bookcloth.
Anthea Black's Work Book cover featuring a compressed column of colourful textiles beneath the title The New Politics of the Handmade.
The New Politics of the Handmade. The New Politics of the Handmade: Craft, Art and Design (2020, Bloomsbury Visual Culture Editions)

Editors: Anthea Black and Nicole Burisch

Contemporary craft, art and design are inseparable from the flows of production and consumption under global capitalism. The New Politics of the Handmade features twenty-three voices who critically rethink the handmade in this dramatically shifting economy.
Anthea Black's Work Collage showing curator Anthea Black holding a purple artist's book alongside installation views of an exhibition featuring colourful artist books.
The Embodied Press The Embodied Press: queer abstraction and the artists’ book, Curated by Anthea Black

Artist's books are a perfect form to experience the pleasures and politics of the handmade. Saturated ink spreading across a page. Layer upon layer. Looking that quickly opens to all senses. The Embodied Press features works by queer and transgender artists, from graphic novels and collage-works to bold experiments with letterpress, screenprint, video, performance, and riso.

This site may contain artworks with provocative content that some viewers may find uncomfortable or upsetting. AUArts supports a culture of non-censorship and ongoing conversations about contemporary art.