Antony Gormley, a London-born sculptor, has been a prominent figure in the city’s art landscape for many years, with exhibitions spanning museums worldwide, including a significant retrospective at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2019.
Awarded the Turner Prize in 1994 and knighted in 2014, Gormley has achieved notable acclaim, although he has occasionally faced harsh criticism in the British press.
Despite such controversies, Gormley remains unshaken, embracing opportunities to discuss his creative process and the meanings behind his work, whether in intimate conversations or public forums.
His current exhibition, "Antony Gormley: Witness, Early Lead Works," runs through June 8 at London’s White Cube gallery in Mason’s Yard. Recently, he also spoke at the Art for Tomorrow conference in Milan, addressing themes such as the communal origins of art, the value of collaboration, and his own compelling urge to create. "I have no choice but to make art," he remarked.
This exhibition acts as a key to understanding the foundations of Gormley’s artistic vision, featuring works that are largely not available for purchase.
While Gormley is widely recognized for his figurative sculptures, including the iconic "Angel of the North" (1998), a monumental winged figure overlooking a major highway in Gateshead, England, his roots are deeply embedded in the Conceptual art movement of the 1970s.
He explained that the show begins with five pieces created before he began using his own body as a model—a pivotal shift in 1981 that shaped his future work. These early sculptures explore found objects through the medium of lead.
Among them is "Land Sea and Air I" (1977-79), which at first glance resembles three similarly shaped stones. In reality, these are oxidized lead containers; one encases a stone collected in Ireland, another holds water, and the third is empty, symbolically filled with air.
Gormley described this piece as an inquiry into the contrast between an object's surface and its substance, reflecting widespread anxieties about nuclear proliferation prevalent at the time.
By utilizing lead—a fundamental element for life—he sought to emphasize "the seeds of a future world beyond the threat of nuclear devastation."
Artistically, this marked a breakthrough. Gormley recalled the excitement of completing the work, saying he couldn’t sleep that night, realizing this was the direction he wanted to pursue throughout his career.
Jay Jopling, founder of White Cube and a longtime advocate of Gormley’s art, reminisced about meeting him some forty years ago as a young art history student. During their conversation, Gormley succinctly described his work as an exploration of what it means to be "alive, alone, and alert on this planet."
Gormley’s emergence in the early 1980s coincided with a vibrant period for British sculpture. The director of Tate Britain has observed that Gormley was a pivotal figure among a generation of sculptors including Anish Kapoor, Richard Deacon, Tony Cragg, and Alison Wilding.
The White Cube exhibition also features several works on paper from the 1980s alongside five lead sculptures from that decade and the 1990s, illustrating Gormley’s gradual development toward his distinctive figurative style.
Highlighted sculptures include "Home and the World II" (1986-96), depicting a walking figure with an 18-foot-long house replacing its head, and "Witness II" (1993), showing a seated figure with its head bowed into folded arms.
These sculptures incorporate materials such as lead, fiberglass, plaster, and air, and notably involve Gormley himself, who had to be encased in plaster molds during their creation.
He described the molding process as quite uncomfortable, involving hours wrapped in cling film and plaster with only a small breathing hole, requiring meditation and breath control techniques he had learned during a two-year stay in India between his studies at Cambridge and art schools in London.
His disciplined Catholic upbringing also contributed to his ability to endure the molding sessions.
After the plaster mold was removed, it was reinforced with fiberglass before being covered with thin lead sheets, which Gormley and an assistant shaped by hammering—an intense physical process.
About twenty years ago, Gormley began incorporating 3D scanning technology into his work. However, he emphasized that the core element remains the use of his own body, not the specific technique.
"I aimed to eliminate the traditional separation between artist and model," he explained. "For me, my body represents a universal human condition sufficiently well."
Although Gormley is highly regarded in the UK, his exposure in the United States has been more limited. This will change with his first solo museum survey in the US, scheduled to open at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas from September 12 to January 4.
Jed Morse, chief curator at the Nasher, described Gormley as a leading figure who has expanded contemporary understandings of the human figure and body in sculpture.
The Dallas exhibition will offer audiences a comprehensive view of Gormley’s artistic evolution beyond the early 1990s, including works like the Corten steel piece "Model Model II" (2022), which abstracts his body into blocky, almost Cubist or pixelated forms.
Gormley continues to work actively, with drawing remaining a vital part of his practice. He often carries a small sketchbook filled with body studies, which he considers indispensable.
Reflecting on his earlier lead sculptures displayed at White Cube, he observed that in today’s digital era, sculpture offers a tangible, direct experience. "These works are existential objects that invite viewers to engage deeply with their own perceptions," he said.
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