Dec 20 2007
Stephen Antonakos at Benaki Museum
Γράφει ο/η Θεόφιλος Δουμάνης   
20.12.07
The J. F. Costopoulos Foundation, as part of its program for the extensive presentation of internationally recognized artists from Greece or of Greek origin, is organizing the first major retrospective in Greece of Greek-American artist Stephen Antonakos. Curated by Katerina Koskina, the exhibition is on view from December 18, 2007 to March 9, 2008 at the Benaki Museum on Pireos street.


The 250 works in the exhibition cover this abstract formalist's creative life from 1954 to the present and enable viewers to follow the entire course of this important artist who has played a major role in the evolution of light art internationally starting in the 60s and who continues to find new inspiration in neon after 45 years. It spans all phases of the artist's evolution, featuring many of the major neon works, over 85 drawings, models for his Chapels and Meditation Rooms, and some works exhibited here for the first time. The exhibition is accompanied by a Greek and an English catalogue with original texts by the curator, Katerina Koskina, as well as by Daniel Marzona, Brian O’Doherty, Martin Filler and Eleftherios Ikonomou.Stephen Antonakos was born in 1926 in Agios Nikolaos, Laconia in Greece.

In 1930his family moved to New York where the artist has lived and worked ever since.
Stephen Antonakos has exhibited extensively, and has installed his permanent Public Works, in exterior and interior architectural sites in the US, Europe, and Japan. The colorful and emotional mixed media assemblages begun in the 50s already showed a
concern with abstract geometric forms and with color. By the early 60s Antonakos had committed himself to neon. From then to the present, his work has been a steady investigation of neon's formal, spatial, and kinetic potential. His Public Works, which
date from 1978, continue this process, with the added possibilities of great, architectural, scale. Crossing the boundaries of sculpture and painting, and sometimes combining them, Antonakos's vision of neon's aesthetic reach have established his
unique contribution to the international dialogue of contemporary art. In his sixth decade as an active artist, Antonakos continues to expand the limits of his art.

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