Rock Solid Vision: Sculptor Robin Antar on Art, Legacy, and Stonework

In this episode of AART the Podcast, we sit down with Robin Antar, a celebrated rock sculptor known for transforming marble, limestone, and sandstone into thought-provoking representations of American culture and identity. With a career spanning over three decades, Antar’s work captures the textures of everyday life — from sculpted Levi’s jeans and sneakers to massive marble hamburgers — blending humor, nostalgia, and craftsmanship into striking stone realism. Robin Antar’s art challenges perceptions of permanence and fragility, exploring how solid materials can embody the fleeting icons of modern life. Her sculptures have been featured in museums, galleries, and private collections across the United States, earning her a reputation as a visionary who bridges the gap between pop art and fine art through the timeless medium of stone. In this insightful biographical interview, Robin shares her early inspirations, her artistic process, and how personal experience and cultural observation shape her creative practice. Listeners will get a rare glimpse into the world of a sculptor who quite literally carves emotion into stone, creating works that resonate far beyond their physical weight. Whether you’re an art lover, sculptor, student, or creative thinker, this episode offers an inspiring look at dedication, identity, and the enduring power of art to tell human stories. SEO Keywords:Robin Antar, rock sculptor, American sculptor, stone sculpture, marble sculpture, limestone sculpture, contemporary sculpture, pop art sculpture, AART the podcast, artist interview, sculptor interview, women in sculpture, fine art podcast, modern art, American artist, biographical podcast, contemporary art, art and identity, sculpture process, marble carving, cultural commentary in artBIORobin Antar is an American rock sculptor who moves seamlessly between Realism and Expressionism. From hyper-realistic icons of American pop culture influenced by Robin’s wry sense of humor, her art explores personal and social trauma and conflict. Robin’s parallel and intertwining bodies of work span her 40-year career as an artist-observer of human nature with a broad lens on the American life. Robin was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1957, one of four daughters. Her father Leon Betseh was a retailer and her mother Linda, an oil painter. In 1973, the family moved to Brooklyn, NY, which proved to be a tough move for Robin as a shy teenager in the city. She began learning to carve in stone in school and in the family’s basement as a means of coping with urban life, using art as her emotional lifeline. In 1976, at the age of 16, Robin discovered she suffered from retrolental fibroplasia causing blindness in her right eye since birth. While her vision was compromised it became an integral tool among the techniques she used to create her art despite an absence of depth perception. After graduating with a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York in 1981, Robin set up a working studio in Brooklyn, creating abstract sculptures in a loose, intuitive style deeply rooted in her emotional experiences. Her themes address marriage, motherhood, divorce and trauma through a series of Conversations, Relationships and Meditation that reflect the process of releasing life’s traumas and their importance to survival, healing and positive change. Trauma has visited Robin in devastating ways with the loss of two of her three sons whom she has memorialized through her art work. A series of stone D-Knots were carved in honor of her youngest child, David, representing his struggles with the trauma of child abuse and addiction. His death at the age of 26 resulted in one of Robin’s most personal and powerful creations, David’s Knot in Flames, carved from a 1,500-pound block of Turkish marble. The sculpture is permanently installed at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, New York, where her son received treatment during his short life. A sculpture is memory of Leon is in progress, out of a 10,000 pound piece of carrara marble. Robin has a studio and showroom in her home in New Jersey.Robin’s website - https://robinantar.com/Robin’s Instagram @robinantar Robin’s favorite artists:Barbara SegalMadaline WeinerCarol TurnerC.C. GriffinCarole Feuerman Robin’s PlaylistCarole KingCountry music Host: Chris StaffordProduced by Hollowell StudiosFollow @theaartpodcast on InstagramEmail: [email protected] a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/aart--5814675/support.A Hollowell Studios ProductionInstagram: @theaartpodcast Email: [email protected]© Copyright: Chris Stafford | Hollowell StudiosAll Rights Reserved

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