His work with neon since 1960 has lent the medium new perceptual and formal meanings in direct 3-D indoor installations; painted Canvases; Walls, back-lit Panels with painted or gold surfaces; Rooms; Chapels; and the architecturally scaled Public Works in the USA, Europe, and Japan. Other important practices include the conceptual packages; collages; Travel Collages; Artist’s Books; the silver and white Reliefs; prints; and, since 2011, several series of framed and 3-D Gold Works.
Since 1958, Antonakos’s work has been seen in hundreds of solo and group shows in New York, around the USA, Europe, and Japan. For almost every exhibition, he created new work. He received the Prize for Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2009) and Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY (2000), the National Academy Museum (2011) and the Greek America Foundation (2011).