Antony Gormley

English sculptor Antony Gormley has had a noteworthy career, with art being shown all over the world for over three decades. While we all know his famous Angel of the North, his work extends far beyond this monumental masterpiece. With a heavy emphasis on the human form and how it interacts with the space around it, Gormley’s craftsmanship is not only aesthetically perplexing (and therefore pleasing!) but also highly intentional and thought-provoking.

ANTONY GORMLEY: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE HUMAN BODY AND ITS ENVIRONMENT

Contemporary artist Antony Gormley studied archaeology, anthropology, and art history at Trinity College, Cambridge, before continuing his studies at Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design and Goldsmiths, University of London. These educational backgrounds fueled Antony Gormley's interest in the relationship between the human body and its environment, laying the foundation for his artistic exploration and work.

One of Antony Gormley's iconic works is the Angel of the North series, a monumental sculpture installed in Gateshead, northern England. Erected in 1998, Angel of the North is 20-meter-high steel silhouetted sculpture, representing a human figure with outstretched arms. This sculpture has become an icon of the British artistic landscape. Angel of the North embodies the symbiosis between art and the environment, creating a striking interaction between the artwork, the viewer, and the site.

ANTONY GORMLEY'S IMMERSIVE ART

Antony Gormley's practice explores the materiality of the human body, as well as how it occupies space, notably through sculptures and his work. One of his most famous series, titled Another Place, consists of an installation of 100 identical statues of his own body, scattered on a beach in Crosby, near Liverpool. Another Place is a series of cast iron figures facing the sea evoke a meditation on time, movement, and human presence in the world.

Originally installed in Cuxhaven, Germany, and now permanently set up on Crosby Beach in the U.K., Gormley’s Another Place stretches along 2.5 kilometres of coastline and 1 kilometre out to the sea. Made up of one hundred solid castings of Gormley’s body in various poses but always with expanded lungs, the figures are spaced out on a varying grid. Those further out at sea are over their head in water at high tide and covered in barnacles. Those closer to the shore are buried up to their ankles and knees in sand. Each is subject to the ebb and flow of the ocean’s tide, enduring the storms but also the sunny days. To the artist, this installation is less about the space the figures take up and more about what exists between them. Stoically posed, one cannot help but feel a sense of solitude when standing amongst them for they mimic our form but have an element of impassivity with which we cannot relate.

Antony Gormley's work Inside Australia, created in 2002, has an even more immersive dimension. Located in Lake Ballard, Western Australia, it consists of 51 steel statues scattered over a vast salt flat. These solitary silhouettes, molded from casts of the region's inhabitants, harmoniously integrate into the landscape, creating an artistic experience that merges nature and culture.

Once in production, however, the sculpture’s body sizes were shrunk to be abut 80 percent thinner than the average human. These emaciated figures are scattered about on the dry lake bed. Gormley said that he aimed to “achieve the highest level of tension between mass and space with highly concentrated and individualised bodyforms.” As they walk from sculpture to sculpture, visitors leave footprints and traces of their paths. When viewed from a nearby ironstone mound, the presence of the spectators and their footpaths connects the distant metal figures.

BETWEEN ART AND ARCHITECTURE: OTHER PROJECTS BY ANTONY GORMLEY

Antony Gormley has also explored the relationship between art and architecture in his work through large-scale projects worldwide. The sculpture Quantum Cloud (1999) in London and Event Horizon (2007), which was exhibited in New York, are examples of his exploration of verticality and the interaction of sculptural forms with urban structures.

Antony Gormley's practice also extends to more intimate and conceptual works, such as Critical Mass (1995), a suspended lead installation representing thousands of compressed human blocks, exploring the notions of density and critical mass.

AN ACCLAIMED RECOGNITION

Antony Gormley has been awarded numerous prestigious prizes for his work, including the Turner Prize in 1994. Gormley's influence extends beyond contemporary art galleries, reaching a global audience with works that provoke reflection on the human condition, space, and time such as Another Place and Angel of the North.

Parallel to his artistic career, the English sculptor has been involved in teaching and promoting the arts, thus contributing to shaping the contemporary art scene and inspiring future generations of artists.

Discover limited edition works by Antony Gormley for sale on Rise Art now.

ANTONY GORMLEY ON RISE ART

Discover limited edition lithographs and prints by Antony Gormley for sale on Rise Art now.

If you liked Antony Gormley's work with sculpture in his iconic masterpieces Another Place and Angel of the North, discover our sculptors and our portraits.