Lori Bookstein Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of Cuts on paper and a neon Wall by Stephen Antonakos (1926-2013). This is the artist's fourth solo show with the gallery.
The Cuts
This exhibition features Antonakos's Cuts from 1977-1978 and includes examples of at least six distinct approaches. One group of deeply-colored drawings here was discovered in storage in 2014. These are almost "objects" in frames. Antonakos continued making Cuts through 2012, including works on vellum, gold leaf, and various papers - and collages, graphics, and Artist's Books. Like most of his work, the Cuts engage three dimensions.
"Four Blue Incomplete Neon Circles"
This important Wall was first shown in a breakthrough exhibition in Athens in 1977. Incomplete circles and incomplete squares are Antonakos's most characteristic, endlessly-explored forms. The Walls, like all his work, start with the consideration of "where" - a site's specific scale and proportions and the space that it engages and enlivens. This Wall is one of the artist's most serene works, even with its dynamic possibility of viewers completing the blue incomplete circles in their imaginations.
Stephen Antonakos's work with neon since 1960 has lent the medium new perceptual and formal meanings in hundreds of gallery and museum exhibitions first in New York and then internationally. His use of spare, complete and incomplete geometric forms has ranged from direct 3-dimensional interior installations to painted Canvases, Walls, the well known back-lit Panels with painted or gold-leaf surfaces, and the Rooms and Chapels. Throughout, he has conceived work in relation to its site - its scale, proportions, and character - and to the space that it shares with the viewer. He called his art, "real things in real spaces," intending it to be seen without reference to anything outside the immediate visual and kinetic experience. Starting in the 1970s he installed over 50 large-scale Public Works with the same concerns plus the inevitably broader engagement of space and natural light outdoors. Colored pencil drawings on paper and vellum, often in series, have been an equally rich practice since the 1950s, as have his various approaches to collage. He has also made conceptual Packages, small-edition Artist's Books, reliefs of white wood and silver, prints, and - since 2011 - several series of framed and 3-dimensional gold leaf works. There have been over 100 one-person shows - almost all of new work - including a 50-year retrospective seen in Athens and the US in 2007-8.
Antonakos: 1977-1978, Cuts and a Wall will be on view from February 19 - March 21, 2015. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, February 19th from 6-8 pm. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10:30 am to 6:00 pm. For additional information and/or visual materials, please contact Joseph Bunge at (212) 750-0949 or by email at joseph@loribooksteinfineart.com.
Photo Credit:
Stephen Antonakos, Untitled Cut, S#1, 1977,
Strathmore paper with cut-outs, 29" x 23"
