Antony Gormley is widely acclaimed for his sculptures, installations and public artworks that investigate the relationship of the human body to space. His work has developed the potential opened up by sculpture since the 1960s through a critical engagement with both his own body and those of others in a way that confronts fundamental questions of where human beings stand in relation to nature and the cosmos. Gormley continually tries to identify the space of art as a place of becoming in which new behaviours, thoughts and feelings can arise.
Gormley’s work has been widely exhibited throughout the UK and internationally with exhibitions at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence (2019); the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (2019); Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (2018); the Long Museum, Shanghai (2017); National Portrait Gallery, London (2016); Forte di Belvedere, Florence (2015); Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern (2014); Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia (2012); Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2012); The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (2011); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2010); Hayward Gallery, London (2007); Malmö Konsthall, Sweden (1993) and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark (1989). A major solo exhibition of his work will be presented at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in September 2019. Permanent public works include the Angel of the North (Gateshead, England), Another Place (Crosby Beach, England), Inside Australia (Lake Ballard, Western Australia), Exposure (Lelystad, The Netherlands) and Chord (MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA).
Gormley was awarded the Turner Prize in 1994, the South Bank Prize for Visual Art in 1999, the Bernhard Heiliger Award for Sculpture in 2007, the Obayashi Prize in 2012 and the Praemium Imperiale in 2013. In 1997 he was made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) and was made a knight in the New Year’s Honours list in 2014. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, an Honorary Doctor of the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity and Jesus Colleges, Cambridge. Gormley has been a Royal Academician since 2003.
Antony Gormley was born in London in 1950.
Born: 1950 in London, England, United Kingdom
Nationality: British
Elected RA: 23 May 2003
Gender: Male
Visit Sir Antony Gormley RA (b. 1950)'s website
Preferred media: Sculpture
Marcus Leith
Photography of the installation of Antony Gormley's Diploma Work 'Plant' at McDonald Institute, Cambridge University., 20th March 2009
Anne-Katrin Purkiss
Antony Gormley RA, November 1994
Hasselblad 500 c/m (scanned from negative, ilford delta 400asa). printed on hahnemühle fine art paper (pearl).
James Hunkin
Antony Gormley OBE, R.A., 2003
Silver gelatin print, kodak ektalure paper
Antony Gormley, Sleeping Field, 2015 – 2016.
Antony Gormley, Shore, 2012.
Antony Gormley, Essere, 2019.
Antony Gormley, The Model Room, 1994 – 2013.
Antony Gormley, Stand, 2019.
Antony Gormley, Critical Mass II, 1995.
Antony Gormley, ?, 2017.
With William Kentridge’s epic works filling our galleries, we’ve been looking back at some of the extraordinary things artists have done with our 350-year-old building.
Six tonnes of steel mesh, a gallery flooded with seawater, a body you could walk through and an experience like no other. Relive our 2019 Antony Gormley exhibition with behind-the-scenes videos, inspiration from the man himself and works from the show.
As museums and galleries reopen, Antony Gormley reflects on a revelatory three months in lockdown – and a cultural shift that could change the arts for the better.
Six tonnes of steel mesh, eight kilometres of coiled tubing, a gallery flooded with sea water and a body that can be walked through: this autumn Antony Gormley RA transforms the Academy’s Main Galleries into a sequence of experiences that challenge the viewer. The show’s co-curator takes us behind the scenes.
From chewing his way through 600 loaves of bread to making the world’s largest angel, Antony Gormley has never been afraid to pull out all the stops in the name of art. As we prepare for his biggest UK exhibition in over a decade, here are 10 works you need to know from across his career.
From the genius of the Renaissance to immersive new work created specially for our galleries, next year’s exhibitions promise to exhilarate and inspire. The RA’s Artistic Director, Tim Marlow, introduces our packed programme for 2019.
Antony Gormley RA
The exhibition HUMAN brought together over one hundred works by Antony Gormley in Florence’s 16th century fortress, Forte di Belvedere.
Sculptures were placed throughout the interior and courtyards to occupy every part of the Forte, positioned to resonate with the building’s scale and mass.
2019 Stand, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Essere, Le Gallerie Degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy
Present, Gallery of Contemporary Art and Architecture - České Budějovice House of Art, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
Sight, Various sites, Delos, Greece
2018 Earth Body, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
Rooting The Synapse, White Cube, Hong Kong
Sum, National Gallery in Prague, Convent of St Agnes of Bohemia, Prague, Czech Republic
Subject, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, England
2017 Living Room, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels, Belgium
Co-ordinate, Galleria Continua, Beijing, China
Being, Hall Art Foundation, Schloss Derneburg, Germany
Another Time Bordeaux, various sites, Bordeaux, France
Prints by Antony Gormley, Burton At Bideford, Devon, England
Still Moving, The Long Museum, West Bund, Shanghai, China
Spotlights – Antony Gormley: The Model Room 1994 - 2013, Tate Britain, London, England
Critical Mass and Expansion Field, Changsha Museum of Art, Changsha, China
2016 Host, Galleria Continua, Beijing, China
Construct, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, USA
Cast, The Alan Cristea Gallery, London, England
Object, National Portrait Gallery, London, England
Fit, White Cube Bermondsey, London, England
2015 Human, Forte di Belvedere, Florence, Italy
Field For The British Isles, 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe, England
Second Body, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Pantin, Paris, France
Land, various sites across the UK, Landmark Trust, United Kingdom
Space Stations, Hatton Gallery, University of Newcastle, England
Space Out, Ropac Salzburg Halle, Austria
Elemental, The Atkinson Gallery, Southport, England
Event Horizon, various sites, Hong Kong
2019 A National Treasure: Fred Meijer, His Collection and Legacy, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA The Dog: a Celebration at Chatsworth, Chatsworth, Derbyshire, England XXL: Estampes Monumental Contemporaines, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, France 2018 Edifice Complex, Visionary, Structure, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, USA The History of Perception, Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, Chicago, USA Five plus five: sculptures from China and Great Britain in Hainan, Haikou, Hainan Island, China Solitary Pleasures, Freud Museum, London, England Summer Exhibition 2018. Royal Academy of Art, London, England Memory Palace, White Cube Bermondsey, London, England Remembering tomorrow: artworks and archives, White Cube, Hong Kong Dimensions of Dialogue, Salam Palace, National Gallery Prague, Prague, Czech Republic 2017 Rodin, L’exposition Du Centenaire, Grand Palais, Paris, France Intuition, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Italy Selected, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, USA Double Edge: Folkestone Triennial 2017, various sites, Kent, England Dejeuner Sur L‘Herbe, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Pantin, Paris, France From Life, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England 2016 British Sculptors: The Fisher Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, USA Found, The Foundling Museum, London, England Co-thinkers, Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture, Moscow, Russia From Rodin to Bourgeois: Sculpture in the 20th Century, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Haag, Netherlands Sculpture as Object, Tate Britain, London, England 2015 Self: Image & Identity, Turner Contemporary, Margate, England Model, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic Making it: Sculpture in Britain, 1977-1986, Longside Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Yorkshire, England Summer Exhibition 2015, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England From Hockney to Holbein: The Würth Collection in Berlin, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany Beyond Limits: Landscape of British Sculpture 1950-2015, Sotheby’s at Chatsworth, Derbyshire, England FFollia Continua! Les 25 And de Galleria Continua, Le Centquatre-Paris, France Scape 8: New Intimacies, Christchurch, New Zealand Making It: Sculpture in Britain 1977 – 1986, Mead Gallery, University of Warwick, England Approaches to Paper, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
Expansion Field, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern and Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland, 2014
Still Standing, Fontanka, London 2011
Antony Gormley, Tate Publishing, London 2010
Antony Gormley, Phaidon Press, London. Antony Gormley in conversation with E. H. Gombrich. Texts by John Hutchinson, Lela B. Njatin, Antony Gormley. Interview with Declan McGonagle, 1995
Making an Angel, Booth-Clibborn Editions, London. Texts by Antony Gormley, Iain Sinclair, Beatrix Campbell, Stephanie Brown, Neil Carstairs, Gail-Nina Anderson, 1995
Critical Mass, Royal Academy, London. Interview with George Benjamin, 1995
230th Summer Exhibition [no pack]
28 May 1998
File RAA/PRE/2/2/57
[draft] Notice of extension of Critical Mass by Antony Gormley
10 Sep 1998
Item RAA/PRE/2/1/341
[draft] Photocall, installation of Critical Mass, by Antony Gormley
22 May 1998
Item RAA/PRE/2/1/328
Summer Exhibition 2003, standard folder
28 May 2003
File RAA/PRE/2/2/91
