Lot #05: Antonia Contro

Antonia Contro

AUS-BIS Bee, 2006

Digital image with collage

Edition: AP

8 x 9.75 inches

Courtesy of the artist

Estimated value: $1,750

Starting bid: $1,250

Buy it now: $2,200

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Antonia Contro (American, b.1957)

AUS-BIS Bee, 2006 is one of 27 mixed-media collages from Antonia Contro’s encyclopedia series A-ZYM which was shown as part of a site-specific exhibition titled Closed/Open at Chicago’s iconic Newberry Library. There, Contro explored the dynamic relationships between past and present, text and image, and academia and art. The exhibition was a convergence of her established interest in encyclopedias, dictionaries, and the transfer of knowledge with specially selected objects from the Newberry’s archive. This print has two collage elements: a digital copy of an SX-70 Polaroid, as well as a digital copy of a watercolor and graphite drawing representing a bee made by Contro.

Antonia Contro’s multidisciplinary practice includes photography, painting, drawing, sound, video, clay, collage, and found objects. Her work has featured in exhibitions by Chicago Cultural Center; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and many others. Contro’s work is held in the permanent collections of Art Institute Chicago; Yale University; and American Philosophical Society Museum, Philadelphia; to name a few. Her installation Sentinels was included in the MoCP exhibition Captured Earth (2024).