Concetta Antico

Concetta Antico is an Australian-American visual artist with studios in Byron Bay, NSW and San Diego, California. Antico is a tetrachromat, giving her eyes the ability to see up to one hundred times more colors than a normal human being.

Antico attended University of Sydney, where she studied Visual Arts, Educational Technology, Mod/Ancient History, Psychology, and Sociology.

Later, she studied Scientific Research at the University of California, Irvine.

In 2012 it was found that Antico had a genotype for potential tetrachromacy, a genetic condition that gives her four types of cone cell classes in her eyes (normal color vision humans only have three cone cell classes). Her extra cone class provides additional sensitivity in the region between the normal middle- and long-wavelength sensitive cones. One advantage provided by this extra cone class appears to be an enhancement of color in shadow and in dim lighting. Antico discovered her condition after collectors and students had begun sending her articles about the condition, after viewing her work.

Born in Australia, Antico began painting at the age of seven after noticing the difference in her vision at an early age. Before she was genotyped, Antico had been painting and teaching art professionally for twenty years. She paints landscapes and animals, reflecting the additional hues she sees. To give this impression, she paints bright and impressionistic canvases, working out of her studios in both Byron Bay, New South Wales and in Mission Hills, San Diego.

Kimberly Jameson of University of California, Irvine has suggested that Antico's artwork uses a color palette that derives from visual processing differences provided by her additional cone class. Through her painting instruction methods at the Salon of Art, in San Diego, she has taught color deficient art students to find a better appreciation of color in their art. 

She is working with scientists to produce learning programs for children who are potential tetrachromats to enlist and help train their potential color vision processing abilities for use in art and design. Research into Antico’s abilities have been published by The Human Tetrachromacy Research Collaborative. One of her life’s goals is to help science properly understand and define tetrachromacy.

Her work is exhibited in a San Diego, California based art gallery. Her work has also been exhibited in fine arts museums. In September 2014 her exhibition Beacons of Beauty: Capturing Earth on Canvas was shown at the Women's Museum of California, Liberty Station.