Antonia Gruber

Antonia Gruber, born in Remscheid in 1993, is a master student of Professor Ute Mahler and Ingo Taubhorn, Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie, Berlin.
In her work, she deals with the visualisation of inner conflicts and the physical and psychological fragility of people. Her focus is on the part that is deliberately hidden from society. Through her work, Antonia Gruber wants to make something invisible visible - impressions and feelings, emotional states that characterise us all and sometimes change us permanently. She often uses the medium of photography, to which the image of ‘depicting truth’ is ascribed, to visualise this invisible part of human existence. 
The role of women is a central theme in Antonia Gruber's work. She explores and reflects on the different images of women in our society and places them in a temporal context. Her artistic work is not limited to a specific medium; depending on the subject matter, she carefully selects the appropriate medium with its specific materiality. 
The exploration and depiction of inner states are closely related to the materiality of the respective medium. Her works oscillate between digital and analogue techniques and explore the limits and possibilities of both areas, building a bridge between past and present, between reality and fiction, and questioning the viewer's perception through targeted changes of perspective.

BLUE DAHLIA_

2022

Archival pigment print on paper
90 x 70 cm

In her work BLUE DAHLIA_, Antonia Gruber explores stereotypes and social role models of women, citing visual material from the 1950s and 60s. Her pictures show both the once predominant image of women, often labelled "good wife, wise mother", as well as the image of a self-confident and independent woman in the present. Gruber reworks the originally black-and-white photographs with the help of artificial intelligence by applying her own biometric passport photo to the protagonists like a mask. In doing so, she leaves the resulting glitches (image errors) in the works. In this way, she destabilises the belief in the beauty of the posed images of women. This challenges viewers to question current images of women. The title BLUE DAHLIA_ can be understood as an allusion to the unsolved murder in 1947 of the 22-year-old Hollywood actress Elizabeth Short, known as the "Black Dahlia Murder". The longing for the blue flower, a primeval romantic motif, becomes a metaphor for the striving for emancipation in this series.

Copyright of all motifs: Antonia Gruber represented by Galerie noir blanche, Düsseldorf

T.T.C. SERIE 

2014-2018

The series is a photographic exploration of the physical and psychological fragility of the human being. The images illustrate the gap between self-portrayal and self-perception. They are digital larger-than-life "portraits" in black and white that have been manipulated in analogue. As a result of this treatment, the portraits appear deformed on the one hand, while at the same time showing themselves in many perspectives, similar to cubist painting. However, in contrast to cubist painting, which aims to capture the body in motion, the view goes beyond this, to an inner movement of the photographed "person". The fictitious portraits become a depiction of inner states. I use the medium of photography, to which the image of "depicting truth" is attributed, to make something invisible visible - impressions and feelings, emotional states that characterise us all and sometimes change us permanently.

Copyright of all motifs: Antonia Gruber represented by Galerie noir blanche, Düsseldorf