Zoe Antona
Zoe Antona is a mixed media artist who has exhibited extensively since 2019 across the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, especially in Atlanta as well as in Italy and South Korea. She is represented by Memento Gallery in which she was featured at the 2024 Atlanta Art Fair. Recent exhibitions in Atlanta include venues such as Koncept House, repeated showings at Memento Gallery, and Buckhead Art and Company. Zoe has been featured in a publication with Voyage Atlanta Magazine and completed a two year residency at Gallery Residential in Buckhead, Atlanta, Georgia.
The mixed media works blur the line between sculpture and painting as three-dimensional forms break through the surface of the canvas. Zoe’s pieces are made almost entirely from salvaged materials, from the canvas and stretcher bars to the forms coming out of the canvas. Containing bright and neon colors, the various forms and tones are inspired by fruit. She recalls memories of tending to her grandfather’s banana trees as inspiration for the incorporation along with her father’s work in fruit distribution. Zoe identifies food such as fruit as a metaphor for family bonding and appreciating the simpler aspects of everyday life.
Fleeting moments of joy along with mysterious, peculiar forms flow from these compositions. Often containing spheres along with organic shapes which resemble folds of fabric there remains an influence from fiber art without using fiber. The way Zoe paints her surface with subtle variation and gloss sheen gives off the impression of the works being glass-like material with their reflective qualities. Vast portions of negative monochromatic space are followed by a focal point of typically spherical holes cut out of the canvas with mixed media protruding outward from the cavity. Much like the stem from a fruit, these points of interest seem to grow from within much like a plant or living organism.
Thoughts of Lovers (pictured above) depicts a lush purple background with blue overtones symbolizing intimacy along with the center as two fabric-shaped folds interact with one another. The central focus of the cavity and focal point draws the viewer to notice the combined formation almost appears like an organic heart. With a sense of dance and play, these forms interact against a background of depth similar to the sky and ocean. A sense of freedom and splendor as the abstraction of lovers embrace.
Zoe Antona breaks boundaries in regards to the definition of sculpture and painting. Her free forms break through dimensions and reach out towards the viewer with their clean presentation and pristine finish. With organic as well as flat aesthetics, Zoe’s installation pieces disrupt and dominate the space with their unusual forms and lucid colors. She engages with unfamiliarity in regards to abstraction, provoking the viewer to examine surface and question philosophical as well as aesthetic purposes regarding space, surface, and composition.
