NEW LONDON, CT / ACCESSWIRE / June 8, 2020 / Intrigued by the range of meanings and emotions held by food and its appeal to the senses, artist Peter Anton creates large-scale sweets using humor, irony, scale and intensity to lure, charm, tease, disarm, and surprise viewers. An exhibition of Anton's work will be presented in "Sweet Dreams: Confectionery Sculpture" at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, which opens July 18 and runs through October 18, 2020.
"Food brings people together and there is no better way to celebrate life," Anton explains. "My artwork has always been about love and the good things in life we all share. I think now, more than ever, this is what we need. My oversized sculptures explore our relationships with sweets and foods and their important impact on our culture. I like to alter and overstate foods to give them new meanings. I have an innate reverence for the things we eat. I am fascinated by the serious role food plays in people's daily lives and throughout history. I strongly feel that different foods activate passions and emotions in people and profoundly connect to an individual's memories and personal history. Food has a power over us. We all have experienced love, passion, comfort, joy, reward, overindulgence, disgust, and guilt from our daily reliance on food. A slice of cake is not just a slice of cake."
The exhibition will include some of Anton's signature sculptures that have been exhibited in international and national museums and galleries since the 1990s, including large boxed chocolates, donuts, ice cream cones and sundaes, and giant cakes on pedestals. The labor-intensive works, created in Anton's studio in Fairfield, Connecticut, are made from a variety of materials, including plaster, wood, metal, resin, clay, acrylic, and oils.
"His work is witty, funny, transformative" observed Virginia Mecklenburg, chief curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, who likens Anton. . . to modern masters such as Jasper Johns. "You look at it and laugh, and then look at it again and think."
"Peter Anton is no stranger to crafting surprising art experiences. His deft hand is apparent in the realistic stroke of food sculptures mounted to the gallery walls. . . (He) proves himself to be a keen observer and a cunning artist." wrote independent curator Audra Lambert in Arte Fuse.
Artnet News said that the artist's ". . . meticulous exploration of textures and use of vibrant colors celebrate the importance and allure of food within people's lives, both past and present." Also noting that it is ". . . somewhat difficult to look at Peter Anton's works without feeling hunger pangs. However, his large-scale food sculptures not only activate viewers' stomachs, but also stimulate their memories and desires."