Born in a mountain village in Laconia, Greece, Stephen Antonakos moved to New York with his family as a young boy. After serving in World War II, he studied art at Brooklyn Community College. In the 1950s he produced paintings, drawings, and, increasingly, collages of found objects. In 1960 Antonakos introduced neon into his collages and it soon became his primary medium. That year he exhibited in Martha Jackson's exhibitions New Forms, New Media I and II. In the early 1960s he showed at the Allan Stone Gallery and the Byron Gallery, where he had his first solo show in 1964. By the mid-sixties, Antonakos had moved into a larger studio on Greene Street in SoHo, and was drawing designs for large-scale, site-specific neon installations. In 1974 the artist was commissioned to produce 10 Outdoor Neons for the exterior of the Fort Worth Art Museum, and he continues to produce large, public neon installations around the United States, Europe, and Japan, as well as interior neons, drawings, and artist’s books. Stephen Antonakos has exhibited at Documenta, the Sao Paulo Bienal, and the Venice Biennale.