Peter Anton | Sweet Dreams: Confectionery Sculpture by Scott Richards Contemporary Art

PETER ANTON

Sweet Dreams: Confectionery Sculpture

Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, Connecticut July 18 - Oct 18, 2020

Spread out over three galleries, this delight-filled, sculptural exhibition features an array of hyperrealistic, mouth-watering creations. Sweet Dreams: Confectionery Sculpture showcases new pieces created specifically for the exhibition at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, along with some fresh examples of Antonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most notable works.

The Connecticut-based Anton, who has been reproducing large-scale sweets in art since the 1990s, is interested in the range of meanings and emotions held by food and its appeal to the senses.

Giant chocolates, melting ice-cream confections, and other treats reveal how the artist uses humor, scale, irony, and intensity to, as he states, â&#x20AC;&#x153;lure, charm, tease, disarm, and surpriseâ&#x20AC;? food enthusiasts and confectionery aficionados alike.

“I use my sculptures as a way to make people smile and to offer an escape from the regular pressures of daily life. I give them the opportunity to transform themselves to a world of imagination—to a fun and happy place, at least for a short while.” PETER ANTON

“We are so thrilled to have an iconic, world-renowned sculptor such as Peter Anton exhibiting with us. His work tells a story in a clever and unique way, while at the same time offering an element of surprise and fantasy. With this new exhibition, Peter offers us a way to escape from the pressures of this global pandemic we continue to face – to lighten our hearts, put smiles on our faces and remember the simpler things that help bring us joy.” SAM QUIGLEY Director, Lyman Allyn Art Museum

M.J. Singletary-Villalobos ÂŠ 2020

SWEET DREAMS

Confectionery Sculpture by Peter Anton For Peter Anton, food goes beyond necessity and indulgence; it is a gateway to memory and emotion. His oversized, hyperrealistic confections immediately surprise and delight, conjuring up childhood memories of frosty popsicles melting in the summer sun and chalky candy hearts received on Valentine’s Day. Boxes of lavishly decorated chocolates come complete with bite marks. Rows of donuts are punctuated by empty rings of glaze. Birthday cakes with slices missing suggest a party happening just offstage. Depicting intrinsically ephemeral objects—foods to be eaten, that melt or decay if unconsumed—his sculptures capture fleeting moments. Virginia Mecklenburg, senior curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, has called Anton’s work, “witty, funny, [and] transformative.” His work has clear roots in Pop Art and builds on such works as Claes Oldenburg’s gigantic sculptures of common objects and Wayne Thiebaud’s depictions of commercialized desserts. Here, Anton’s subjects are iconic American sweets, largely mass -produced and instantly recognizable. They connect us at once to individual sensory memory and shared cultural identity. The exaggerated scale and exacting detail both tease our senses and encourage exploration of our ideas about appetite, consumption, pleasure, overindulgence and even addiction. The process of making a sculpture begins for Anton with a nearly reverent exploration of the food itself—its history, how it is made, and a close examination of how it tastes, feels, smells and even crumbles. Each artwork is painstakingly rendered over a period of weeks from a variety of materials, including plaster, resin, wood, metal, acrylic and oil paints, all carefully chosen to most realistically reproduce the textures and colors of the actual food. “I strongly feel that different foods activate passions and emotions in people and profoundly connect to an individual’s memories and personal history,” Anton says. His meticulous meditation on each ice cream bar and cherry cordial invites us to reconnect with our deeper selves and savor the emotions that these sweets stir up.

Assorted Cupcakes (Detail) 56 x 33 x 33 inches mixed media, ÂŠ2013 13

THE CONNECTICUT EXAMINER JULY 18, 2020, by CATE HEWITT:

Peter Anton Opens Show of Outsized ‘Confectionery Sculpture’ at Lyman Allyn NEW LONDON — For sculptor Peter Anton, food is a portal to celebratory memories and a kind of “sensory snapshot” that connects us to emotions ranging from happiness to obsession. “We use sweets to celebrate and we also use them for comfort when we’re depressed and we reward ourselves with sweets,” said Anton, who creates giant renditions of ice cream cones, cakes and confections. “As an artist, I love color and textures and you can’t top a colorful dessert.” In “Sweet Dreams: Confectionery Sculpture,” at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, Anton will show 35 of his outsized, hyperrealistic works, including several pieces he created specifically for the exhibition. The show opens this Saturday, July 18, and will run through October 18.

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Love Sampler

THE DAY JULY 26, 2020, by KRISTINA DORSEY:

Sugar rush: Peter Anton’s art turns Lyman Allyn into a candy land Imagine being a character in a mash-up of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.” That’s how it feels to wander into the Lyman Allyn Art Museum galleries that are showcasing the whimsical food-centric art of Peter Anton. On the wall is an ice cream bar—the height of an adult—with moisture beads gathered around a patch of iciness; shards of chocollate break into the white ice cream where it looks as thought someone has taken an enthusiastic bite. A muti-hued cake that seems almost as big as a beanbag chair sits on a pedestal, the frosting glistening invitingly around the moist-looking cake. Stop-sign size lollipops are lined up and glimmer in a rainbow of colors. Fans of art—and dessert—can see “Sweet Dreams: Confectionery Sculpture” through Oct. 18 at the Lyman Allyn in New London.

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Sarah Gordon/The Day

Fantasy Assortment 2020, mixed media 48 x 36 x 5 inches SOLD INQUIRE

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Love Sampler

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Conversation Candies

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Happy Cake

Frozen Cake

Spumoni

Red Velvet Cake

Pecan Pie

Macaron Tower

Donut Pillar

Super Donuts

Cherry Danish

Smashed Squirrel

Sugar Madness: Cherry Cordials 60 x 48 x 8 inches mixed media, ÂŠ2017 INQUIRE

Lollipops

Circus Peanut

Cracker Jack

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Milk Bar

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Ice Cream Cone

Dark Bar

Tropical Ice Bar

Lyman Allyn Art Museum 625 Williams Street, New London, CT 06320 USA Tel: 860.443.2545, www.lymanallyn.org

This exhibition is supported by the Frank Loomis Palmer Fund, Bank of America, Trustee; the Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of the Arts; and an anonymous foundation.

All photos courtesy of Peter Anton ÂŠ2020 except otherwise noted.

Sweet Dreams: Confectionery Sculpture is on view through October 18, 2020.

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