Robin Antar

Robin Antar, the Brooklyn artist who is known for her stone sculptures of realism, will be one of eight artists who will be comprising an exhibition at the Palitz Gallery in Manhattan from April 15-June 13, 2013. This exhibition is going to be made up of the work of eight artists who are all Wynn Newhouse Award-Winning artists, and all of whom have some sort of disability.

The Wynn Newhouse Awards are given to artists who have accomplished many amazing feats in their profession, despite the fact that they have been challenged by infirmities recognized by the Americans with Disabilities Act. The 2012 award winners were selected in January, when a panel of judges selected the work of eight out of the participating 35 artists who were nominated.

Ms. Antar, whose contemporary sculptures really seemed to impress the judges, is well-versed in the art of sculpture. Whether she is crafting abstract sculptures or representational sculptures, Antar finds a way to excel when it comes to three-dimensional art. And, given her limited sight and ability to only see the world in two dimensions, her success is truly inspiring.

“I have retrolental fibroplasia in both my eyes,” says Antar. “As a result, not only am I blind in one eye, but my left eye is in jeopardy as well. If I lift heavy objects such as stone I use to sculpt, I risk losing sight in my “good” eye and detaching its retina due to strain and pressure.”

Morning After (pictured above), one of Antar’s modern sculptures of realism, is made of honeycomb calcite, green marble, and bronze, and it will be featured in the gallery exhibition. Alongside her stone sculpture, there will be a variety of different artistic media on display, which include oil on canvas, video, and hand-cut collage on found paper, among others.

The Palitz Gallery, a sattellite of the Syracuse University Art Galleries, is located at Lubin House, 11 East 61st street, New York, NY. Hours are Monday-Friday: 10am-6pm, Saturday: 11am-4pm. Admission is free.

Robin Antar, the Brooklyn artist known for her stone sculptures of realism, is one of fourteen artists who have officially been nominated for the illustrious Wynn Newhouse Awards for 2012. The Wynn Newhouse Awards are given to top professional artists who happen to have disabilities. These awards started in memory of collector Wynn Newhouse who had a disability and was aware of the many creative contributions by people having disabilities.

For those of you who are familiar with Ms. Antar’s representational sculptures and abstract sculptures but don’t really know much about the artist herself, she is actually blind in one eye. And yet, despite being visually impaired in a profession that is so heavily dependent on vision, Antar has thrived.

Antar’s contemporary sculptures have been featured in exhibitions at Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum in New Jersey, The Alternative Museum, Montclair State University, Pen and Brush Inc., Bradley Gallery/Indiana State University and New York University, Loeb Student Center, among many others. She is also the first female artist to exhibit at Soho, New York’s POP International Galleries, where her modern sculptures are currently on display.

If you’ve seen Ms. Antar’s “Realism in Stone” collection of sculptures, which includes M&M’s (pictured above), Everlast Boxing Gloves, French’s Mustard, Oreo Cookies, and York Peppermint Patties among tons of others, you know the attention to detail that her work includes. Each sculpture is extremely precise and requires a whole lot of concentration, and they are admired by anybody who gazes upon them. Anyone who can take thousands of pounds of stone and turn them into these beautiful works of art should be celebrated – whether or not they have full vision. And that’s what may be the most amazing part of Antar’s sculptures; her lack of vision doesn’t appear to play a role in the overall outcome of her work.

On January 25, 2013, judges for the Wynn Newhouse Awards will meet to select the winners and allocate awards based on artistic excellence. Winners will be awarded cash prizes, in addition to being invited to participate in an April 2013 exhibition at the Palitz Gallery, which is located on New York’s Upper East Side.

If Antar wins, it wouldn’t be the first time she’s done so. Her awards and honors include the Gold Medal Award of Honor – Allied Artists of America, Top Talent Award from the Art Director’s Club, and the Gretchen Richardson Award for Carved Sculpture from the National Association of Women Artists and many, many more.

Photo by Steve Solomonson

Robin Antar, the Brooklyn artist known for her stone sculptures of realism, was recently written about in the Brooklyn Paper. In the article by Eli Rosenberg, it’s explained how Ms. Antar is attempting to get her contemporary sculptures into the Brooklyn Museum through the museum’s open-sourced GO contest.

“I’m at a disadvantage because there’s a few open galleries in Midwood, whereas if you went to DUMBO you’re going to find a lot more,” said Antar, who has had her representational sculptures, as well as her abstract sculptures shown in galleries all over the country, including Texas, California and SoHo. “But I think I have a good chance. Why should I be in the Denver Museum when I have no connection to Denver? I’ve lived here most of my life and I should be in there!”

The GO contest will give people of the Brooklyn community the chance to vote for their favorite artists, with the top ten getting nominations to be evaluated by the Brooklyn Museum. Of those ten, two of them will have their work showcased in the museum.

If you are a supporter of the local arts community, the GO contest is definitely something you want to take part in. Who knows? You can be the one to make a difference in your favorite artist’s life.

To check out Ms. Antar’s modern sculptures, go to her studio, which is located at 1485 E. Fifth St., at Avenue N in Midwood today between 11 am–7 pm.

Robin Antar, the Brooklyn artist who is well-renowned for her stone sculptures of realism, will be joining other Brooklyn-based artists who are participating in GO: a community-curated open studio project. As a part of this project, all of the artists are opening their studios to the community on September 8th & 9th, 2012, from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm, so that community members can vote for the artists that they think should be included in a group exhibition to open at the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday, December 1, 2012.

If you have the chance to visit Ms. Antar’s studio during the tour, you will get to see the wide range of contemporary sculptures that she has produced. Not only will you have access to the artist’s representational sculptures, but you will get to experience her abstract sculptures as well. In addition to that, you are going to get a chance to see where the artist makes all of her modern sculptures and spends most of her waking hours.

But before any of that can happen, you need to register to be a voter by visiting: https://www.gobrooklynart.org/register/voter

Now, onto the details of how the voting is going to work.

During the open studio weekend, you’ll visit studios and check in using text messaging, the GO mobile app, or the GO mobile website by entering a unique number identifying each studio. If you don’t have a phone, you can write this number down and enter it later on the website.

After you have checked in to at least five studios, you will be eligible to nominate three artists from your visits for inclusion in an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum.

The ten artists with the most voter nomination will receive visits from Brooklyn Museum curators to select work for the exhibition, opening on Target First Saturday on December 1, 2012.

For more information about this event, you can visit: https://www.gobrooklynart.org/