ART CITIES:London- Tony Cragg

Tony Cragg is one of the world’s most foremost sculptors. The continual sculptural investigations led Cragg from his early uses of detritus from the streets, plastic and other consumer materials to contemporary utilizations of metal, wood, white onyx, bronze and casts. The changes of material, however, make a congruous addition to his previous oeuvre and thematic choices.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Lisson Gallery Archive

Tony Cragg’s exhibition spans both London venues of Lisson Gallery, it features the latest works in Cragg’s career-long pursuit of his interest in developing specific groups of sculptural themes and forms. Sculpture is for Cragg a method to unlock this enormous potential not just for new forms but the new meanings, dreams and language that will become associated to them. For him it is a method for discovering the as yet unseen.  The exhibition shows several new departures, including works entitled “Industrial Nature” where he explores tensions and collisions between natural, organic and artificial elements. This represents a continuation of his investment in geometric vs. organic forms that reflect the world around us. Very different approaches to related themes can be found in the monumental bronze sculptures “Willow”, “Skull” and “Migrant”. While the wooden sculpture “Spear” and “Sail” in white onyx open new lines of investigation that derive from his “Versus” series. A new body of glass works made in Venice and aggregate, seed-like casts of the sculptor’s own head (Identity) are exhibited next to the latest developments of three of Cragg’s larger groups of work “Early Forms”, “Rational Beings” and “Manipulations”. All of which have evolved far from their origins in the ‘80s and surprise again in this exhibition with new twists and turns.   Cragg never forgets the path he has taken to arrive at his latest works that still find references in some of his earliest works, such as the stacks, assemblages and his figurative collages made from discarded materials. This latest body of work, however, once again affirms the contemporaneous nature of the artist’s practice.

 Info: Lisson Gallery, 27 Bell Street, London & 52 Bell Street, London, Duration: 1/10-5/11/16, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat 11:00-17:00, www.lissongallery.com