Thessia Machado

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 improvised and composed performed works, the ensemble of things is augmented by a dynamically responsive and intentionally unpredictable human element. Electronics are almost always implicated.

Machado’s sculptures, drawings, and sound installations have been broadly exhibited both in the US and Europe. She has performed with her handmade and modified instruments in both reputable institutions – such as the Drawing Center, The American Academy in Berlin, and the Issue Project Room – and in dilapidated basements and experimental spaces throughout Brooklyn and beyond. She was awarded the Berlin Prize at the American Academy in Berlin and an Artist’s Grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in 2017.