Thessia Machado is a visual/sound artist, instrument builder, and performer whose work plumbs the materiality of sound and its effect on our shifting perceptions of space. She creates circumstances in which to mine the matter of her pieces for their innate physical properties and the sonic and visual relationships that can arise from their interactions. In the performed works, the ensemble of things is augmented by a dynamically responsive and intentionally unpredictable human element. Electronics are almost always implicated.
In 2019, Machado had a solo exhibition at the Arts Club of Chicago. In 2017, she was awarded the Berlin Prize at the American Academy in Berlin and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Artist’s Grant. She is a recipient of fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Harvestworks, The Experimental Television Center, and The Bronx Museum. Machado’s work has been shown, among other places, at The Drawing Center, NY; BRIC Arts, NY; The German-Japanese Cultural Center, Cologne; Cyberarts Gallery, Boston; District Gallery and SomoS Gallery in Berlin. Machado has attended residencies at MacDowell, Homesession, Barcelona, Yaddo, Ipark, NARS Foundation, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Machado is a visiting faculty member at Bennington College for fall 2019 and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for spring 2020
