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Australian Galleries
Sydney Bridget McLeod, Artists Profile , June 2011 Antoniou works from his imagination and " makes no distinction between things remembered and things dreamt". the exploits of his characters, however, are not to be found in any play you will ever see. New Arrival features a man riding a peacock serving ice cream to a cast of characters , including a cat-headed man , an aviator complete with plane , a woman in a teapot and a howling dog. These are complex , highly detailed works, a collage of of ideas drawn from all aspects of the artist's life. His influences are wide from the written works of Carl Jung, James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, to the artistic output of Francisco Goya , Max Beckmann and Pablo Picasso. In addition to these external influences , Antoniou responds to personal events such as moving house or the death of a loved one. These influences appear in Antoniou's drawings, but not usually in their literal form. He believes that " most of the things that happen in our lives have much greater meaning than we really understand" and he tends towards a language of symbols to synthesise the influences in a different guise. In spite of the unfamiliar settings and strange characters populating the art works, we recognise the depth of emotion present. There are intimations of fear, sadness and loss but also of friendship, seduction and exhuberance." Bridget McLeod, Artists Profile , June 2011
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