Stephen Antonakos: 2 Neons and 12 Drawings

From January 12 to March 3, 2013, The Drawing Room in East Hampton is pleased to present a focused selection of works from the 1960s and 1970s by Stephen Antonakos, renowned for his groundbreaking neon installations, panels, and site-specific public works, as well as a robust body of drawings that explore parallel concerns of spatial perception. The exhibition is anchored by two signature neon wall sculptures from the mid-1970s that exemplify Antonakos’ interest in the potential of luminous geometric forms to articulate and transform human experience of architecture. Paired with these glowing three-dimensional works, two groups of drawings offer a glimpse into other facets of the artist’s keen observations on the formal relationships between geometry, architecture and the white field of the page. Throughout, Antonakos’ distinctive use of incomplete geometric forms reveals his engagement with the intersection between what we see and what we know.

This exhibition highlights work from a decade in the artist’s career that was marked by his early excitement with neon as an independent sculptural element and his fervent investigation of its far-reaching possibilities. Tracing the progression of ideas from the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s, it includes a series of ‘project drawings’ that record his inventive concepts for the use of neon, as well as two restrained geometric neon works that hover on the wall, and a suite of rigorous drawings from 1976. Four decades later, these works have an enduring impact that underscores their timeless reach.

See below for full press release.