Peter Anton

Biography
1963 -

About the artist

Peter Anton was born in 1963 in New Haven, Connecticut. He is an American artist and sculptor.

Anton’s primary subject is food and he has a special craving for chocolate in his artwork. Peter Anton is often referred to as the “Candy Warhol”. He creates giant realistic sculptures and is best known for his ‘larger than life’ boxed chocolates.

Anton’s studio often resembles a sweet shop filled with dozens of real treats which he uses as models. Anton absorbs every detail of his subjects before he starts his tedious and long process of sculpting, carving, sanding, painting and construction of his mixed media works.

Anton had his first solo show in 1993 at the Henri Gallery in Washington, D.C. Anton had had solo exhibitions around the world including Gallery Delaive in Amsterdam, Guy Pieters Gallery Knokke, Belgium, galleries in the United States, Germany and many more countries around the world.

During Art Miami 2012 Peter Anton’s showcased an extraordinary project; Sugar & Gomorrah was an actual roller coaster reworked into an art experience showcasing the juxtaposition between a sense of doom and the magical world of giant sweets. The attendees darted through a snaking tunnel up and down hills rapidly twisting and turning all while viewing a modern interpretation of the destruction of a Sodom and Gomorrah-like world created entirely by Anton. On the full-sized ride there was a backdrop of fire, dusty skeletons, tumbling pillars, nearly nude live models and a virtual candy-land of gigantic treats—all while Lesley Gore's "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows" played loudly. The ride was a visually stimulating experience, challenging the viewer to fall into temptations of food and the flesh. Attendees waited in long lines to experience the popular exhibition which ran continuously for six days.

Peter Anton’s work is featured in many private and public collections including Steven A. Cohen, the CEO of Sony, Sir Howard Stringer, Boston Red Sox owner Tom Werner, New York Yankees owner Barry Klarberg, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, the Jordanian Royal Family, architect Sir Norman Foster, Breitling Watches and candy maker giant Perfetti Van Melle.

His work is also in the permanent collection of museums including the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri; the Copelouzos Art Museum in Athens, Greece; the Lisser Art Museum in Lisse, the Netherlands; the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock; the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville; the Portland Art Museum in Oregon and the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

"In my sculptures I like to alter and overstate foods to give them new meanings. I have an innate reverence for the things we eat. Food brings people together and there is no better way to celebrate life. Through the use of humor, scale, irony, and intensity in my forms, the foods we take for granted become aesthetically pleasing and seductive in atypical ways. I like to create art that can lure, charm, tease, disarm and surprise. My sculptures put viewers in a vulnerable state so that I can communicate with their inner selves in a more honest and direct way. I activate the hunger people have for the things that give them pleasure and force them to surrender. The sensual nature of the works stimulates basic human needs and desires that generate cravings and passion."

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