The internationally acclaimed artist Steven Antonakos (Agios Nikolaos, Laconia 1926 - New York, 2013) moved with his family to New York in 1930 and began painting on his own at a young age. He attended classes at Brooklyn Community College (1947-1949) and held his first solo exhibition at the Avant-Garde Gallery in New York in 1958.

From the early 1960s, the use of colored fluorescent (neon) tubes became a feature of his work, and he ranks among the pioneers who established its use as an artistic medium. His work includes sculpture, large-scale installations, architectural interventions, drawings and prints, art books, as well as meditation rooms and chapels. His works adorn public spaces in various cities in America, Europe and Asia. In 2000 he created the installation Procession for the Ampelokipi Station of the Athens Metro.

He presented his work in hundreds of solo and group exhibitions around the world, and participated in international exhibitions such as Documenta VI (1977), the São Paulo Biennale (1987) and the Venice Biennale (1997, Greek participation).

He has received dozens of awards for his artistic contribution such as the Art Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2009) and Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY (2000), the National Academy Museum and the Greek America Foundation (both 2011).

In 2007-2008, a retrospective exhibition was held at the Benaki Museum (Athens) and in 2011 an exhibition was held at the Old Elefsina Oil Factory as part of the Aeschylus annual festival.

His works can be found in museums and collections in the USA (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, MOMA, Whitney Museum of American Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Public Library, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York University Art Collection, The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas, etc.), in Switzerland, Museum of Art and History (Geneva), in the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris in France, and in EMST, MOMus, the Byzantine and Christian Museum, the Onassis Foundation Collection and the Alpha Bank Collection in Greece.