Antonia Penia is an award-winning artist, photographer and filmmaker born in Galicia, Spain, and has been based in London since 2010.
Antonia’s work ‘From War to the Wardrobe’ won her the prestigious ‘Portrait of Britain Award’ in 2022. A retrospective celebrating 20 years of her work focussing on her hometown, Galicia - a showcase of 50 images was recently held at the Cervantes Institute in Prague.
Antonia is a visual artist who expresses her creative vision using photography, video, and performance art. Through exploring and insinuating her self-image, she creates intimate, sensual and provocative images that explore identity, gender, and social and cultural status and some of the narratives that question issues of power, religion, race, gender, and the relationship between the past and present.
Antonia explored her own sexual expression with her first work, ' Leave Me Alone' (2004), which prompted her work with Spain’s most elite erotic publications. She shot her first Playboy cover at the age of 26.
The sensual and powerful underwater film series 'Symbiosis of Liquid Dreams' won her 'The Young Creator of the Year Award' at Feria de Arte Contemporáneo in Madrid (2008).
Deeply spiritual and connected to Mother Earth, images of bareback portraits at one with Nature featured in Photo Vogue Italia 2020 and are an ongoing theme throughout Antonia’s work. The combination of nature and human shapes and behaviour inspires her.
Poetry and sensitivity are at the heart of her visual aesthetic. Her work is inspired by the works of 17th Century painters Vermeer and Rembrandt and the Romantic Pre-Raphaelites of the 19th Century.
Feelings of longing, loss, mental health, censorship, and connection to the natural and spiritual world have shaped her work. She is challenging the history of patriarchy and the abuse of power through gender across her life. She believes in equality, and she fights for her rights.
Antonia’s passionate and energetic personality helps her to be able to express her creative vision. She firmly believes that the foundation of life is learning, and learning is a living experience and as such continues her own studies with a recent MA in Fashion Photography from UAL London College of Fashion in 2023 and Fine Art at the EFTI, Madrid in 2003 and is embarking on a PhD.
Commercial Portfolio on Request. | E-Mail Antonia | Call Antonia +447570897252 | +34625699420
AWARDS
Portrait of Britain | 2022 WINNER
Photo España, Art-Madrid | 2015 SHORTLISTED
Feria de Arte Contemporáneo, Art-Madrid | 2008 WINNER YOUNG CREATOR OF THE YEAR
PRESS LINKS
https://www.1854.photography/awards/portrait-of-britain/winners-2022v2/#foogallery-67152/i:13
https://www.vogue.com/photovogue/photographers/212915
https://dzen.ru/a/Y8LwskMe-RGccmay
https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/london-college-of-fashion/stories/rediscovering-artist-antonia-penia
https://www.eliberico.com/reino-unido-una-fotografa-gallega-gana-el-prestigioso-portrait-of-britain-2022/
https://www.diariodearousa.com/articulo/o-salnes/fotografa-cambadesa-antonia-pena-gana-prestigioso-portrait-of-britain-4137438
https://thephotographicjournal.com/essays/masculinity/
https://www.women-exposed.com/antonia-penia
https://www.farodevigo.es/arousa/2022/08/21/cultura-celta-luce-musculo-fundacion-73722637.html
https://blog.eisv.es/archivos_sistema/noticias/pdf/30.pdf
https://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/firmas/2012/10/10/retratos-playboy-fotos-boda-londres/0003_201210P10C5991.htm
https://elpais.com/sociedad/2008/01/25/actualidad/1201215609_850215.html
https://www.farodevigo.es/sociedad/2007/01/20/antonia-pena-indaga-desnudo-arte-18167503.html
https://www.farodevigo.es/sociedad/2005/12/26/intimidad-mujer-todavia-tema-tabu-18267872.html
EXHIBITIONS
2023 Galicia. Solo Retrospective of 20 years of Antonia's work, Cervantes Institut, Prague, Czech Republic.
2023 LCF Postgraduate Showcase. Group Show. London Fashion Week, The Truman Brewery, London, UK.
2022 Liberation. Solo Performance, Bermondsey Project Space, London, UK.
2021 Sex is the Earth. Group show at Women Exposed online. Curated by Nadia Nervo.
2018 Know Your Roots. Group Show, Museum of London. Heritage Lottery Fund, Uk.
2014 Symbiosis of Liquid Dreams. Group show, Resistance Gallery- London, UK.
2013 Around Me. Group Show. September 2013, EFTI Art Gallery, Madrid, Spain.
2009 Leave Me Alone. Solo Show.Fernando Magdalena Art Gallery, Vigo, Spain.
2009 Symbiosis of Liquid Dreams. Group show. "Re-Género" exhibition, Cultural Center of Spain, Lima, Peru.
2008 Symbiosis of Liquid Dreams. DEARTE Art Fair, Madrid, Spain (Young Artist Prize Winner).
2006 Leave Me Alone, solo exhibition, Dolores de Sierra Art Gallery, Madrid, Spain.
2006 Leave Me Alone, solo exhibition, Irina Maldonado Art Gallery, Toledo, Spain.
2006 Leave Me Alone solo exhibition, Art Gallery, Olías del Rey, Spain.
2005 Leave Me Alone. TIAF, Toronto, Canada.
2004 Leave Me Alone. Group show. Acer-Arte Art Gallery, Oviedo, Spain.
2003 Leave Me Alone. Group show. May-July 2003, PHotoEspaña 2003, Madrid, Spain.
EDUCATION
2022-2023 Master of Arts - Fashion Photography - Distinction. London College of Fashion. UAL.
2002-2003 MA Photography. EFTI. Madrid.
2000-2002 HNC Photography & Film. EISV. Galicia. Spain.
