About John D. Antone
ARTIST STATEMENT:
My sculpture is visual poetry.
Dreams interest me and beauty found in nature.
Houses are an open door to the imagination.
Art stops time.
What are we doing here? Flying.
- John D. Antone
My sculpture is visual poetry.
Dreams interest me and beauty found in nature.
Houses are an open door to the imagination.
Art stops time.
What are we doing here? Flying.
- John D. Antone
Biography
John D. Antone is known internationally for his bronze sculptures. He uses traditional lost wax casting because it is timeless, dangerous, and beautiful. Slovenian/Italian critic Dejan Mehmedovic says: “The objects with which John touches us are poetry of the unreal and dreamlike images that conjure meaning without negating what is actually real.”
John’s sculpture is in private collections and art museums around the world, including the Art Museum of the Americas, Collections of Latin and North America Masterpieces (OAS), in Washington, DC and sculpture parks in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic and the Andres Institute, USA, among others. Mr. Antone’s performance poetry and art objects have been seen/exhibited at The Kitchen, New Your City in Europe and in India at Padatik Theater, (UNESCO). Influences include graduate fellowship study at CAL Arts with Conceptual artist John Baldessari, Rodin and travel to other cultures
The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) awarded Mr. Antone a “Distinguished Guest of India ” fellowship designed to connect leaders in India with their peers abroad in an exchange of ideas. In 2023, judges of the 9th Geoje International Art Festival in South Korea voted to honor Mr. Antone with an “Excellence Award” for his sculpture out of 350 other participating global artists and the Haegeumgang Theme / Yukyung Art Museum also in South Korea added one of Antone’s bronze sculptures to its permanent collection.
Previously, Mr. Antone was the first American artist ever invited to have an exhibition in the 35 year history of cultural programs at the European Union Commission Headquarters’ Berlaymont Palace in Brussels, Belgium. Art fairs include “RedDot/Art Basel Miami 2023".
Vogue/Manhattan New York and Art Museum of the Americas/Washington, DC in 2024.
Commissions welcomed. He continues to seek international audiences for his work
John’s sculpture is in private collections and art museums around the world, including the Art Museum of the Americas, Collections of Latin and North America Masterpieces (OAS), in Washington, DC and sculpture parks in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic and the Andres Institute, USA, among others. Mr. Antone’s performance poetry and art objects have been seen/exhibited at The Kitchen, New Your City in Europe and in India at Padatik Theater, (UNESCO). Influences include graduate fellowship study at CAL Arts with Conceptual artist John Baldessari, Rodin and travel to other cultures
The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) awarded Mr. Antone a “Distinguished Guest of India ” fellowship designed to connect leaders in India with their peers abroad in an exchange of ideas. In 2023, judges of the 9th Geoje International Art Festival in South Korea voted to honor Mr. Antone with an “Excellence Award” for his sculpture out of 350 other participating global artists and the Haegeumgang Theme / Yukyung Art Museum also in South Korea added one of Antone’s bronze sculptures to its permanent collection.
Previously, Mr. Antone was the first American artist ever invited to have an exhibition in the 35 year history of cultural programs at the European Union Commission Headquarters’ Berlaymont Palace in Brussels, Belgium. Art fairs include “RedDot/Art Basel Miami 2023".
Vogue/Manhattan New York and Art Museum of the Americas/Washington, DC in 2024.
Commissions welcomed. He continues to seek international audiences for his work
Curators Statement
In order to convey his artistic message, John D. Antone uses the universal language of symbols. Let me touch on just a few. The Tree, this inspiring “Arbor Vitae”, is a symbol of life, perpetually evolving and ascending towards the sky. However, it is also a symbol of death and rebirth. I could easily imagine that in Antone’s sculpture the tree formally represents the vertical, as it symbolically represents he human being, man. The house is an image of the universe: it is the center of the world; it is a temple, it is also a female symbol associated with shelter; it is the opposite of the tree or its compliment. The house-nest on a branch – a symbol of the victory of life and the permanence of love, also at a time when all hope is lost – is a powerful symbol of faith in man and basic human values.
A house without windows represents isolation, which can be increasingly applied to contemporary man. The bird defines the relation between sky and earth; it is the symbol of the soul, the mediator between the earth and the sky. The bird also acts as a symbol of freedom because of the belief that the soul, once freed from the body, takes on the form of a bird. Still birds can represent the desire for freedom. The moon is a very clear symbol of transformation and growth, the symbol of dreams and the unconscious as well as night. — Breda Skrjanec, Curator, International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia
A house without windows represents isolation, which can be increasingly applied to contemporary man. The bird defines the relation between sky and earth; it is the symbol of the soul, the mediator between the earth and the sky. The bird also acts as a symbol of freedom because of the belief that the soul, once freed from the body, takes on the form of a bird. Still birds can represent the desire for freedom. The moon is a very clear symbol of transformation and growth, the symbol of dreams and the unconscious as well as night. — Breda Skrjanec, Curator, International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia
