PETER ANTON: Candy Dandy

During the month of September, Scott Richards Contemporary Art presents PETER ANTON: CANDY DANDY, a new series of wall-mounted sculptures depicting oversized, illusionistic candy and sweets. A gallery reception, featuring Belgian chocolates and refreshments, will be held on Saturday, September 17, 3 – 5 pm in conjunction with the Union Square Fall Art Walk. The exhibition continues through October 1.

In the spirit of indulgence—and with a healthy dash of good humor—Peter Anton focuses his unflinching eye on the heart of our desire. His monumental, hyper-realistic boxes of chocolates, ice cream bars, donuts and popsicles present us with an unapologetic look at ourselves. While the richly colored, rounded shapes and sugarcoated surfaces make for luminously pure still life subjects by themselves, the overarching theme also serves as an ideal metaphor for human experience. It evokes simple nostalgia and shared memories, while tapping into the deeper realm of human desire; our longing for mouthwatering sweets echoes the pull of erotic pleasure, seduction and decadence, and their inevitable transience. The result can make us wriggle with delight or squirm with guilt.

“Through the use of humor, scale, irony, and intensity in my forms,” says Anton, “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.” He adds, “I activate the hunger people have for the things that give them pleasure, and force them to surrender.”

Anton’s multi-colored, slick and textured surfaces are crafted from carefully selected and manipulated materials, including cast foam, aluminum, acrylic, fabric, and high-gloss industrial paints. With his playful use of heightened color, exaggerated form and impeccable technique, the artist promises us the unattainable: ultimate satisfaction.

Peter Anton is an internationally known artist who has participated in exhibitions from Germany and Korea to New York and California. His works are held in numerous public and private collections, including the Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR; the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO; the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, OR; the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT; and Bill and Hillary Clinton.