Stephen Antonakos: Earlier Work

An exhibition of Stephen Antonakos's earliest works from the 1960s–1970s, featuring 2-D Sewages, 3-D Assemblages, Pillows, and early neon installations. About This exhibition starts with examples of the earliest 2-D Sewages and 3-D Assemblages from the 1960s made mostly from fabrics and wood forms found here and there. In these abstract and colorful compositions, we can sense already Antonakos's essential, life-long concept of real things in real spaces. After serving in the Army, he established his first studio in NYC's garment district, where he happened to find an excellent sewing machine. "It's what you do with what you have." he said; and dynamic lines of colorful stitching animate many early works. One important small work is centered on a few dried flowers rising from a black ground and surrounded by activated blue space. Gently and clearly, it reveals his deep Orthodox belief. The Pillows of the early 1960s, and especially the Pillow Drawings, already demonstrate "Matissean" spatial ambiguities of form and ground that continued through later decades of drawings. Throughout these works, and always, the placement of material forms in space is definitive. A mid-1970s Direct Neon is likewise defined by the architecture and the space of its site. It is impossible to separate light and space. Regarding the Package Projects begun in the 1970s, Antonakos said, "I place my work in space. I place the Packages in time as well." The trio here exemplifies the duality of knowing and not knowing the contents of these enigmatic presences. The timing of this exhibition at the close of the artist's Centennial Year is intended as an opportunity to experience the relevance of the earlier handmade work to his later, better-known neon work of greater scale and placement around the world. Read more Toggle Mixed media Prints Installation Drawing Sculpture