CURRICULUM VITAE | NICOLE ANTEBI
Assistant Professor of Animation and Illustration
Co-director of The Wonder Studio at Biosphere 2
School of Art | College of Fine Arts
The University of Arizona, Tucson
nantebi@arizona.edu www.nicoleantebi.com
CHRONOLOGY OF EDUCATION
2001 Master of Fine Art, Visual Art, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
1998 Bachelor of Fine Art, Sculpture/Printmaking, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX
SELECT ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
2021-Present
Assistant Professor of Animation and Illustration
School of Art | College of Fine Arts 2021-Present
Affiliate Faculty Latin American Studies
The University of Arizona, Tucson
HONORS AND AWARDS
2025 Fulbright-García Robles U.S. Studies Chair Finalist
2024 Recipient of the Integrative Art Research Fellowship, University of Arizona
Lee Herbst Faculty Innovation Award for the School of Art, The University of Arizona for bridging research, teaching, and service learning
2023 Anthem Award for our 2021 animated Covid Explainer series, collaboration between the American Museum of Natural History and the City of New York.
SELECT CREATIVITY ACTIVITY/RESEARCH | EXHIBITIONS, SCREENINGS and PERFORMANCES
2024
“Vecinos,” performance with collaborator Ingrid Leyva at INVERSE Performance Festival, Bentonville, Arkansas. Commissioned by the Momentary and Crystal Bridges (Curators: Cynthia Post Hunt and Emma Saperstein)
Over Story/Meander Story Solo exhibition and “Cinco Minutos a Cinco Puntos,” a 12-hour community event I organized in conjunction with the closing of the exhibition. Galería Cinco Puntos, El Paso, Texas (Jan 2024)
Installation, artist talk, screening and animation workshop at the Irish National College of Art and Design and sister installation with collaborator poet Éireann Lorsung at University of College Dublin titled “Border, River, Mover, Breather” (May 2024)
100 Partially Obscured Views/100 Vistas Parcialmente Oscurecidas 2015-2023 (Animated Documentary) Select Activities
2024
Acquired for The El Paso Museum of Art’s permanent collection
Official Selection 20 Festival Transterritorial de Cine Underground, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Biophilia International Film Festival, Mexico City, Mexico
Official Selection Cinetoro Experimental Film Festival, Toro Valle del Cauca, Columbia
Solo exhibition at Galeria Cinco Puntos, El Paso, Texas (January 2024)
Screening followed by a Q & A at the Irish National College of Art and Design Dublin, Ireland (May 2024)
2023
Included in the Border Biennial at The El Paso Museum of Art. El Paso, Texas, Curators: Claudia S. Preza M.A., EPMA Assistant Curator, alongside curatorial advisors Edgar Picazo Merino and Jazmín Ontiveros Harvey.
Included in the Border Biennial at the Museo de Artes de Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Curators: Claudia S. Preza M.A., EPMA Assistant Curator, alongside curatorial advisors Edgar Picazo Merino and Jazmín Ontiveros Harvey.
Official selection of 26th annual Antimatter [Media Art], October 19 to 29, 2023 in Victoria, BC, Canada.
Official selection of AM Docs Film Festival, Palm Springs, California
Selected for exhibition as part of the 2022/2023 MexiCali Biennial The Land of Milk & Honey / La Tierra Que Mana Leche y Miel
Included in The Arizona Biennial 2023 at the Tucson Museum of Art, Curator: Taína Caragol
2022
Soft premiere Central School Project, Bisbee, AZ
Screening at Cornell Cinema (X)trACTION Program, Ithaca, NY
Screening at Arsenal Berlin (X)trACTION Program, Berlin, Germany
Screening at the Rio Grande Theater, Las Cruces, New Mexico in conjunction with Icons and Symbols of the Borderland, curated by
Diana Molina
Official selection Lunenburg Doc Fest, Lunenburg Nova Scotia Canada
Official selection Oaxaca Film Festival, Oaxaca, Mexico
2023
“The Wonder Desk,” conceived in collaboration with Aaron Bugaj, presented at The Center for Creative Photography’s exhibition “Ways of Knowing, Ways of Being | Arts Research and Integration”
Tilapia Jetty screening at the Second Annual Finger Mullet Film Festival at Crisp-Ellert Art Museum at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida. (Programmers: Julie Dickover, Patrick Moser, Kevin Mahoney)
Meander Story/El Historia de los Meandros (in collaboration with Ingrid Leyva, Celina Galicia, and Sonia Rayka) commissioned by Alabama Center for Contemporary Art and part of the exhibition “American Boundary Waters” Curator: Elizabeth Hawley
“Mapping a Restless River at the US/Mexico Border” continuing exhibit at the National Building Museum “The Wall/El Muro, What is a Border Wall?” (curator: Sarah A. Leavitt, Ph.D.)
2022
"Mapping a Restless River at the US/Mexico Border" multi-year exhibition at the National Building Museum “The Wall/El Muro, What is a Border Wall?” (curator: Sarah A. Leavitt, Ph.D.)
Screening of Gestures for a Plague Season in collaboration with "The Clock Tells the Hour" (organized by Éireann Lorsung and Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance)
2020
Animation collaboration with artists Courtney Puckett and Colin O’con for New York Textile Month
Participating artist in White Rock Center for Sculptural Arts second summer invitational, Holmes, NY (Curators: Courtney Puckett and Colin O’con)
Participating artist in Pandemic Projections, Singac, NJ (Curators: Gianluca Bianchino and Jeanne Brasile)
Nudibranchs x 10 part of the exhibition Art in the Lab, St. Frances College, Brooklyn, NY (curator: Alison Dell, Ph.D)
SELECT PUBLICATIONS | ANIMATED ESSAYS
2024
Antebi, Nicole “Reclaiming Friendship Across Borders” The Texas Observer (Editor: Gus Bova/Art Director: Ivan Flores)
2022
Antebi, Nicole “The Revitalization of ProNaf; Then and Now” Derivas Lab 2020/2022 Ed. No.2 Ciudad Juárez, published in Querétaro, Mexico (Editors: Francisco Paillie Pérez and Ximena Ocampo Aguilar)
SELECT WORK REPRODUCED IN A SCHOLARLY BOOK
2025
Quoted in Emily Celeste Vázquez Enríquez’s forthcoming book Border Biomes: Ecological Imaginaries of Mexico's Edges published by Vanderbilt University Press. Emily Celeste Vázquez Enríquez is an Assistant Professor Department of Spanish and Portuguese University of California, Davis
2023
Quoted in Alejandra Olivia’s book Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith, and Migration published by Penguin Random House (2023) from my (2019) animated essay “Mapping a Restless River in the U.S.-Mexico Border”.
Quoted in Barbara Sostaita book Sanctuary Everywhere: Fugitive Care on the Migrant Trail, Sonoran Desert Chapter. The book is an ethnographic study of the ways migrants shelter and defend each other during the migratory journey. Barbara Sostaita is an Assistant Professor in Latin American Studies at The University of Illinois at Chicago
PODCASTS
2024
Growth Podcast interview, by Meylen Pang, Berlin, Germany
SELECT ANIMATION COMMISSIONS
2024
Hired to produce animated sequences for Ternura Radical (2024)
short documentary about the rise in activism around gender violence in Juárez, Mexico. Director: Celina Galicia funded by Femme Frontera, El Paso, Texas
2021-2022
American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) Covid explainer series funded by AMNH & New York Health & Mental Hygiene
Erin Chapman, New Media Producer AMNH
Nicole Antebi: Animation, Illustration
Hannah Snell, Motion Designer
Translations: Spanish, Mandarin
Desert Archaeology: “Tucson did you know?” Animated titles and transitions. Director: Lisa Molomot.
SELECT BOOK TRAILERS
2020
Book Trailer for Megan Rosenbloom’s Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin FSG Press (July 2020)
SELECT EDUCATIONAL ANIMATION
2021-2022
Illustrator/Animator on the Science of Covid-19 four-part animated series supported by the American Museum of Natural History and The City of New York (2021-2022)
SELECT GRANTS AWARDED AND COMMISSIONS
Internal Grants
2022-ongoing
Grantee of CUES Spanning Boundaries Challenge team Community Stories of Sustainability and Resilience: Promise for the Learning Experience
TEAM:
Caitlyn Hall, Department of Biosystems Engineering, W.A. Franke Honors College, CALS, College of Engineering
Nicole Antebi, School of Art, College of Fine Arts
Aaron Bugaj, Biosphere 2, RII
Lysette Davi, Honors Global Experience, Honors Study Abroad, W.A. Franke Honors College
Laura Horley, Marketing & Communications, W.A. Frank Honors College
Kenneth Kokroko, School of Landscape Architecture & Planning, CAPLA
Year 1: Facilitated Ingrained animated film collaboration and service learning opportunity with Flowers & Bullets community farm located in Tucson, AZ. Animation I students volunteered at the farm learning how to cultivate blue corn as the basis for their short fully animated documentary “Ingrained.” Members of Flowers & Bullets leadership also contributed assets to the final animation.
Screenings:
Premiered at “What’s Up Docs?” program the LOFT Cinema (2022)
2023 University of Arizona Wonder House at SXSW (2023)
TEDX U of A (2023)
2023 Fall Convocation
Year 2: Small Seeds; Big Change, Animation I film collaboration and service learning opportunity with Borderlands Restoration Network, based in Patagonia, AZ. After a site visit to BRN where the students volunteered in the seed nursery and agave farm, students animated a short film about their experience, intended to advocate for BRN’s mission of restoring binational water systems. (2023)
Screenings:
Premiered at “What’s Up Docs?” program the LOFT cinema (2023)
2021-ongoing
Principal Investigator for “STITCHING IDENTITIES: Rarámuri Dressmaking and Resistance in Chihuahua City” archive and short documentary film based on Victoria Blanco's book Out of the Sierra published by Coffee House Press in collaboration with siríame or governor of El Oasis, Amalia Holguin, and London-based filmmaker, Irene Baqué and funded by a Digital Borderlands, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through Special Collections at The University of Arizona Library.
2023-ongoing
SELECT AIRES/RII/TRIF Funded SCIENCE IN MOTION/THE WONDER STUDIO COLLABORATIONS with BIOSPHERE II
Part 1: Co-PI with Diane M Thompson, Scott R Saleska, and Greg A Barron-Gafford on Science in Motion: Scaling Broader Impacts of UArizona Resilience Science Through Student-Engaged Filmmaking, Animation, Data Visualization, and Motion Arts-Science Pedagogy in collaboration with Aaron Bugaj, Senior Research Specialist and Media Producer at Biosphere 2.
Part 2: PI HUMANITIES/RESILIENCE/ARTS seed grant received in collaboration with Aaron Bugaj, Co-I, Research Technologist, Biosphere 2, Dr. A. Elizabeth (Betsy) Arnold, Co-I, Professor and Curator, RLG Mycological Herbarium - School of Plant Sciences, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology on Deepening Foundations for Science In Motion: Arts Research, Coalition Building, and Groundwork for UArizona Art & Science Resilience Synergies of the Future
Part 3: Successfully organized and facilitated two “Moving Science” animation residencies at Biosphere 2, impacting 14 students, each receiving a stipend to participate.
In Fall of 2024 the Wonder Studio secured a permanent home at Biosphere 2 where Aaron Bugaj and I hosted the Liverman Scholars in our inaugural stop motion workshop
Part 4: Co-PI with Aaron Bugaj ARTS/RESEARCH/RESILIENCE grant for Expanding Design-Based Data Visualization at the Wonder Studio at Biosphere 2
2022
ART504 The Borderlands: Animated EDI award to fund visiting artists, performances, and fieldwork.
2022
COLLABORATION WITH THE FLORENCE IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE RIGHTS PROJECT
Final project collaboration with my Illustration 2 ART360 class. Students were introduced to the stories of asylum seekers who spent time at Eloy Detention Center in Florence, Arizona and the many challenges and dangers they face at home and in the US. The students’ illustrations were used in the Florence Project newsletter, social media posts, and on their website as a means of creating empathy by connecting readers to their clients.
The illustrations are now part of the Ford Foundation Border Narratives archive in The University of Arizona Special Collections.
CONFERENCES/SCHOLARLY PRESENTATIONS
2025
Paper titled “Reclaiming 'Friendship' Across Borders” selected to present at MODE SUMMIT 2025 (Motion Design Education Conference) in Prague, Czech Republic
2024
Presentation and thaumatrope animation workshop, Artistic Expression of Original Research, Santa Rita Experimental Range, Sahuarita, AZ. Organized by Jessica Maccaro
CONFERENCIA ENTORNO E IDENTIDAD, Panel discussion at El Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez. Moderador: Christian Diego Diego
Non-fiction Animation Talk with documentary filmmaker, Lisa Molomot, support from The Hanson Film Institute and The School of Film and Television at University of Arizona
Presented “Science in Motion” talk and cut paper collage stop motion workshop to Liverman Scholars Retreat at Biosphere II
Facilitated a one day stop-motion animation workshop for Visions Smoca students, Tucson, AZ
2023
Webinar panel to discuss “The Revitalization of ProNaf; Then and Now”published by Derivas Lab 2020/2022 Ed. No.2 Ciudad Juárez, published In Querétaro, Mexico (Editors: Francisco Paillie Pérez and Ximena Ocampo Aguilar)
Presented “Science in Motion” talk to Liverman Scholars Retreat at Biosphere II with Aaron Bugaj
Facilitated a one day stop-motion animation workshop for Visions Smoca students, Tucson, AZ
2022
Transnational Community Centered Animation: A conversation Between Norma V Iglesias-Prieto and Nicole Antebi at 10th Annual Emerging Conversations Symposium (EC2022), Hosted by AVCE at the University of Arizona Funded by CUES, LAS, Confluence Center
Presented “Science in Motion” talk to Liverman Scholars Retreat at Biosphere II with Ellen Mcmahon and Aaron Bugaj