Antony Gormley | |
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.jpg) Gormley in 2024 | |
| Born | Antony Mark David Gormley (1950-08-30)30 August 1950 (age 75) Hampstead, London, England |
| Education | |
| Known for | Sculpture,installation art, public artworks |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Awards |
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| Website | www |
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Sir Antony Mark David GormleyCH OBE RA (born 30 August 1950) is a British sculptor.[1] His works include theAngel of the North, apublic sculpture inGateshead in the north of England, commissioned in 1994 and erected in February 1998;[2]Another Place onCrosby Beach nearLiverpool; andEvent Horizon, a multipart site installation which premiered in London in 2007, then subsequently inMadison Square in New York City (2010),São Paulo (2012) and Hong Kong (2015–16).
Gormley was born inHampstead, London, the youngest of seven children, to a German mother (maiden name Brauninger) and a father of Irish descent.[3][4][5] His paternal grandfather was anIrish Catholic fromDerry who settled inWalsall in Staffordshire.[6] The ancestral homeland of theGormley Clan (Irish:Ó Goirmleadhaigh) inUlster was eastCounty Donegal and westCounty Tyrone,[7] with most people in both Derry andStrabane being of County Donegal origin. Gormley has stated that his parents chose his initials, "AMDG", to have the inferenceAd maiorem Dei gloriam – "to the greater glory of God".[8]
Gormley grew up in aRoman Catholic[9] family living inHampstead Garden Suburb. The family was wealthy, with a cook and a chauffeur, with a home overlooking the golf course; Gormley's father was an art lover.[5]
Gormley attendedAmpleforth College, a Benedictine boarding school inYorkshire,[5] before reading Archaeology, Anthropology, and the History of Art atTrinity College, Cambridge, from 1968 to 1971.[5] He travelled to India and theDominion of Ceylon /Sri Lanka to learn more aboutBuddhism between 1971 and 1974.[5] When Gormley returned to England, and inspired by his time in India, he made one of his first artworks,Sleeping Place, by laying a plaster-soaked sheet over a friend. Its hollow plaster shell hinted at the form of a body and recalled the people Gormley saw asleep inIndia wrapped insaris ordhotis.[10]
After attendingSaint Martin's School of Art andGoldsmiths in London from 1974, he completed his studies with a postgraduate course in sculpture at theSlade School of Fine Art, between 1977 and 1979.[citation needed] Gormley's work as a student used natural materials such as stone and wood.[11][non-primary source needed]
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Gormley's career began with a solo exhibition at theWhitechapel Gallery in 1981. In this exhibition, Gormley showed a series of works that were concerned with surfaces, skins and inner structures, such asNatural Selection, a 10-metre (33 ft) row of objects, including tools, fruits, weapons and vegetables, encased in lead, andRoom, an enclosure reminiscent of a barbed-wire fence made from a set of the artist's clothes.
Gormley then turned his attention to the human body, creating moulds of his own body in plaster that he would then encase in lead. These works, such as the three-part sculpturesThree Ways: Mould Hole and Passage andLand Sea and Air II, as well as the single body-case worksPlateau,Night andPeer, attempt to investigate the body as a space. In Gormley's words: "How to make bodies into vessels that both contain and occupy space? The early three-piece lead works are the first works in which I used my own body. I was trying to map out the phenomenology of the body and to find a new way of evoking it as being less a thing, more a place; a site of transformation, and an axis of physical and spatial experience."[12][non-primary source needed] Throughout the 1980s, Gormley's lead body-cases were extended, suspended, sealed, pierced and also doubled into two joined forms. He had his first solo exhibition withXavier Hufkens in 1987, who still represents Gormley.
Gormley describes his work as "an attempt to materialise the place at the other side of appearance where we all live."[13] His work attempts to treat the body not as an object, but as a place and in making works that enclose the space of a particular body to identify a condition common to all human beings. The work is not symbolic but indexical – a trace of a real event of a real body in time.
In the 1990s, the hollow body-cases became solid, with Gormley casting the work in iron to create masses that displace space. One of these works,Critical Mass II, was installed in an old tram storage station inVienna.[2] Comprising 60 life-size sculptures, all presented in a variety of positions and poses, the work has been described by Gormley as "an anti-monument to the victims of the 20th century".[14] This work has since been exhibited in a variety of countries and contexts, each time reconfigured in response to its environment. Notable presentations include theRoyal Academy of Arts inLondon, Art Changsha in China andForte di Belvedere inFlorence, Italy.
The 2006Sydney Biennale featured Gormley'sAsian Field, an installation of approximately 200,000 small clay figurines crafted by around 300 Chinese villagers in five days from 100 tons of red clay.[15] Use of others' works attracted minor comment. Some figurines were stolen.[citation needed] Also in 2006, the burning of Gormley's 25-metre-tall (82 ft)The Waste Man formed the zenith of theMargate Exodus.[citation needed] Other collaborative projects includeClay and the Collective Body,Inside Australia,Domain Field and Gormley's ongoingField works, includingAsian Field,Amazonian Field,American Field,Field for the Art Gallery of New South Wales andField for the British Isles.[2]
In 2007 Gormley'sEvent Horizon, consisting of 31 life-sized and anatomically correct casts of his body, four incast iron and 27 infiberglass, was installed on top of prominent buildings along London'sSouth Bank, and placed in locations around New York City'sMadison Square in 2010. Critic Howard Halle said that "Using distance and attendant shifts of scale within the very fabric of the city, [Event Horizon] creates a metaphor for urban life and all the contradictory associations – alienation, ambition, anonymity, fame – it entails."[16]
In July 2009, Gormley presentedOne & Other, aFourth Plinth commission, an invitation for members of the public, chosen by lot, to spend one hour on the vacant plinth in Trafalgar Square in London.[17] This "living art" happening initially attracted much media attention. It even became a topic of discussion on the long-running BBC radio drama seriesThe Archers, where Gormley made an appearance as himself.[18]
Throughout the 2000s, Gormley has interrogated the relationship between the human body and architecture, notably in his series of steel and iron "Blockworks". In these works, Gormley replaces anatomy with architectural blocks that recall the built environment.
From 2 June–9 September 2012,The Phillips Collection exhibitedAntony Gormley Drawing Space. It was his first U.S. museum exhibition of his works on paper; the exhibit "... included approximately 80 prints and drawings created over 40 years."[19]
In March 2014, Gormley appeared in theBBC Four seriesWhat Do Artists Do All Day? in an episode that followed his team and him in their Kings Cross studio, preparing a new work – a group of 60 enormous steel figures – calledExpansion Field.[2] The work was shown at theZentrum Paul Klee inBern.[20]
In May 2015 five life-sized sculptures,Land, were placed near the centre and at four compass points of the UK in a commission by theLandmark Trust to celebrate its 50th anniversary. They are atLowsonford (Warwickshire),Lundy (Bristol Channel),Saddell Bay (Scotland),the Martello Tower (Aldeburgh, Suffolk), andClavell Tower (Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset).[21][22] The Dorset sculpture was knocked over into Kimmeridge Bay by a storm in September 2015.[23]
On 6 September 2015,Another Place marked the 10th anniversary of its installation atCrosby Beach inMerseyside. Gormley commented:
I'm just delighted by the barnacles!
Every time I'm there, just like any other visitor, you're encouraged to linger a bit longer seeing the tide come in and how many of them disappear. And then you're encouraged to linger further until they're revealed again.[24]
In September 2015, Gormley had his first sculpture installed in New Zealand.Stay is a group of identical cast-iron human form sculptures, with the first installed in theAvon River / Ōtākaro inChristchurch'scentral city, and the other sculpture installed in the nearbyArts Centre in early 2016.[25]
In 2015 at theForte di Belvedere inFlorence, Gormley presented a group of cast iron works that acted as points of "acupuncture" throughout the historical fortress.[26][non-primary source needed] Gormley returned to Florence in 2018 with the exhibitionEssere at theUffizi Gallery. The exhibition featured both historical and recent work, notablyRoom from 1980,Sense from 1991 andPassage from 2016.
In 2017 Gormley curatedInside, an exhibition at theSouthbank Centre, London, presented by theKoestler Trust showing artworks by prisoners, detainees, and ex-offenders. In addition, he judged their annual category prize, also on the theme "inside".[27]
Gormley then held the first solo exhibition at the newly remodelledKettle's Yard inCambridge.[when?] Two new bodies of work, known asRooters andPolyhedra Works, were shown that year atWhite Cube inHong Kong andThaddaeus Ropac inSalzburg, respectively.
On 21 April 2018, Gormley released a limited edition vinyl album of ambient sounds from his studio forRecord Store Day titledSounds of the Studio. It consisted of two tracks (one on each side) titledSounds of the Studio (Part 1) andSounds of the Studio (Part 2). It came with an inner with amonochrome print of his studio on one side and text by the artist with a photo on the other.[28]
In 2019 Gormley populated the island ofDelos with iron "bodyforms" with the exhibitionSight.[2] Organised and commissioned by theNEON Organization and presented in collaboration with the Ephorate of Antiquities ofCyclades, the project marked the first time that an artist took over the archaeological site of Delos since the island was inhabited more than 5,000 years ago, and is the first time a contemporary art installation has been unanimously approved by the Greek Archaeological Council of theMinistry of Culture to take place in Delos, aUNESCO World Heritage Site.[29][30][31] He installed 29 sculptures made during the last 20 years, including five new works specially commissioned by the NEON Organization, both at the periphery and integrated amongst Delos's archaeological site and museum, animating the geological and archaeological features of the island.[32]
Also in 2019, the Royal Academy held an exhibition filling its 13 main galleries with Gormley's works, including some new (designed to fit the space), some remade for the gallery, and some of his early sculptures, with two rooms of his drawings and sketchbooks.[33]
In 2020 Gormley was confirmed to be "lending" a sculpture toKirklees College to sit atop its new building at Pioneer House inDewsbury, as part of a major redevelopment in the town.[citation needed]
In 2022 a Gormley sculpture calledAlert was installed on the main campus ofImperial College London. The installation raised objections from the student body due to its perceived "phallic" interpretation.[34]
That year, Gormley also held exhibitions atXavier Hufkens inBrussels,Lehmbruck Museum inDuisburg, Germany andMuseum Voorlinden inWassenaar, the Netherlands. In Duisburg, his work was placed in dialogue withWilhelm Lehmbruck's expressionistic, elongated sculptures. Gormley'sReflection II has remained on display at the museum.[citation needed]
In 2023 Gormley opened a number of large-scale exhibitions, includingLiving Time at TAG Art Museum inQingdao, China, andCritical Mass atMusée Rodin inParis, which marked the first time that a living artist has been invited to exhibit in all areas of the museum, including theHôtel Biron. As part of the exhibition, Gormley showed his major artworkCritical Mass II, a sculpture comprising 60 cast iron bodies, in and around the museum and its grounds. Inside the Hôtel Biron, Gormley placed four sculptures in dialogue with Rodin's own work and also selected a number of his working models to be seen alongside Rodin's plaster maquettes. Later in the year, Gormley openedBody Politic atWhite Cube in London, a solo exhibition of new sculptures responding to themes of movement and containment, as well as the topic of migration. As part of the exhibition, a new installation,Resting Place, filled a room with 244 bodies built from fired bricks, and a row of what the artist calls concrete "bunkers" ran down the gallery's central corridor.
In 2024Time Horizon, an installation of 100 cast iron sculptures, opened atHoughton Hall inNorfolk. The installation responded to the specific landscape of the parkland and the history of the hall. Gormley also unveiledTrue, for Alan Turing atKing's College, Cambridge. This sculpture, made from slabs of Corten steel, celebrates the life and enduring influence of mathematician and computer scientistAlan Turing. Speaking on the sculpture, Gormley stated "Alan Turing unlocked the door between the industrial and the information ages. I wanted to make the best sculpture I could to honour a man who was pivotal in changing the course of all our lives. It is not about the memorialisation of a death, but about a celebration of the opportunities that a life allowed".[35]
Gormley's first solo exhibition inNew York City in more than eight years opened atWhite Cube and ran until June 2024. The artist exhibited a new site-specific installation titledAerial, from which the exhibition took its name. This sculpture was made from horizontal and vertical aluminium bars that filled the room like "whiskers" and visitors were invited to enter and find their way through this space.[36]
From 13 September 2025 to 4 January 2026, theNasher Sculpture Center in Dallas is exhibitingSurvey: Antony Gormley, the first major exhibition of his work in the United States.[37] The exhibit spanned the breath of Gormley's work. In conjunction with the exhibit, Gormley installed works on the rooftops of skyscrapers in and around downtown Dallas.
Gormley won theTurner Prize in 1994 withField for the British Isles.
Gormley has been aRoyal Academician since 2003, and was a trustee of theBritish Museum from 2007 to 2015. He is an honorary fellow of theRoyal Society of Arts and theRoyal Institute of British Architects, honorary doctor of the universities ofTeesside,Liverpool,University College London, andCambridge, and a fellow ofTrinity andJesus Colleges, Cambridge. In October 2010, along with 100 other leading artists, he signed an open letter to then Culture MinisterJeremy Hunt protesting cutbacks in the arts.[38]
On 13 March 2011, Gormley was awarded theLaurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance for theset design forBabel (Words) atSadler's Wells in collaboration withSidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet.[39] He was the recipient of the Obayashi Prize in 2012 and is the 2013Praemium Imperiale laureate for sculpture. Gormley wasknighted in the2014 New Year Honours for services to the arts, having previously been appointedOBE in1998.[40][41]
ForRoom he received the 2015Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Sculpture.[42]
In 2008The Daily Telegraph ranked Gormley number four in their list of the "100 most powerful people inBritish culture".[43]
In June 2025, Gormley was appointed aCompanion of Honour in theBirthday Honours byKing Charles III.[44]
Gormley's work is held in major public and private collections around the world, including theArts Council of England;Tate, London;British Museum, London;British Council, England;National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh;Royal Academy of Arts, London;Victoria and Albert Museum, London;Wellcome Collection, London;Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney;National Gallery of Australia, Canberra;Middelheim Museum, Antwerp;Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humblebaek;Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris;Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg; SCHAUWERK Sindelfingen, Sindelfingen;M+, Hong Kong;Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin;Uffizi Gallery, Florence;National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo;Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar;State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg;Malmo Konsthall, Malmo;Pinchuk Art Centre, Kyiv;MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts;Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles;Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.;San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco;Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota;Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, Michigan; andYale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut.[45]
Gormley's auction record is £3,401,250 for amaquette of theAngel of the North, set atChristie's, London, on 14 October 2011.[46]
While at the Slade School of Fine Art, Gormley metVicken Parsons, who was to become his assistant, and in 1980, his wife, as well as a successful artist in her own right.[8][47] The couple have a daughter and two sons,[48][49] and live in a convertedgasholder inKing's Cross, London.[50]
Gormley is a patron ofPaintings in Hospitals, a charity that provides art for health and social care in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.[51]
In June 2022, Gormley said that he had applied forGerman citizenship, to which he is entitled through his German mother, after describingBrexit as "a practical disaster" and a "betrayal".[1]
In 2024 he donated £500,000 to theLabour Party. It was his first political donation after previously donating to theGreen Party in 2023.[52]
Gormley's website includes images of nearly all of his works and exhibitions up to 2024. The most notable include:
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 Antony Gormley – The Art Fund onYouTube,ArtFund UK |
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