Konrad Fischer Galerie Düsseldorf is delighted to announce the eleventh solo show of Tony Cragg, one of the most important and internationally renowned artists and sculptors of our times.
Tony Cragg describes himself as a „radical materialist" and draws inspiration from biology, chemistry and physics to critically rethink the role of sculpture in the present day and explore its future potential. As author and curator Jon Wood - editor of the Sculpture Journal and former curator at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds - notes, Cragg's practice is rooted in this scientific curiosity. For Cragg, sculpture represents „an active form of questioning the world and acts as a catalyst for raising awareness of and sensitivity to it". In his work, Tony Cragg explores the unique properties of bronze, stone, stainless and Corten steel, wood, glass and synthetic materials - practically the entire spectrum of materials available to sculpture.
Based on these multifaceted material concepts, Tony Cragg regards his artistic work as a constant search for new forms that each generate new meanings, arouse new emotions and thus add something previously unseen and unknown to our world of forms, which is characterised by industrial standardisation. Natural forms - whether taken from human physiognomy, geology or even the smallest structures visible only under a microscope - are the sources of his artistic inspiration.
On the first floor, we present sculptures from the new series Stand, made of Corten steel and bronze, which Tony Cragg has been working on since 2023 and which gave our exhibition its title. Standing on three points or feet, the voluminous sculptures, as Jon Wood notes, appear to be attentive guardian figures that seem to observe the audience.
The finely and rhythmically structured sculpture entitled REM, made of highly polished stainless steel, is part of the new Dream Sleepers series. The allusion to REM (rapid eye movement), the involuntary eye movement that occurs in sleeping people even when their eyes are closed and is characteristic of high brain activity and deep dream phases, can be easily understood by the rapidly wandering glances of visitors on the reflective surface of the sculpture and its numerous branches.
The new group of works entitled Incidents on the second floor ties in with earlier works, such as those from the Hedges series, but also with works from the Stand series. However, with their biomorphic and geometric forms, they are also reminiscent of the formal repertoire of sculptures and paintings by Hans Arp, Isamu Noguchi, Tanguy, Miró and Brancusi. The almost floating sculptures made of both, Corten and stainless steel stand elegantly balanced on three points directly on the floor and appear as if the materials were still in flux.
Tony Cragg (born 1949 in Liverpool, UK) has lived and worked in Wuppertal since 1977. After his artistic education at the Royal College of Art, he served as Professor and later as President of the Academy of Arts in Düsseldorf. The winner of the Turner Prize in 1988, he began exhibiting solo in 1979 at Konrad Fischer Galerie in Düsseldorf and immediately launched an international career, with his works featured in various public spaces and international museums.
Tony Cragg has exhibited, among many others, at MOMAD Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik, Croatia (2025), Skulpturentgarten Spanischer Turm, Darmstadt, Germany (2025); Terme di Diocleziano, Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome, Italy (2024); Castle Howard, York, UK (2024); Kunstpalast Düsseldorf (2024); Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria (2022); Houghton Hall, Norfolk, UK (2021); Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey (2018); Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK (2017); National Museum of Havana, Cuba (2017); MUDAM Luxembourg (2017); Wroclaw Contemporary Art Museum, Wroclaw, Poland (2017); The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia (2016); Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal, Germany (2016); Heydar Aliyev Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan (2014); Musée d'art moderne de Saint-Étienne, Saint-Étienne, France (2014); National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan (2013); CAFA Museum, Beijing, China (2012); Musée du Louvre, Paris, France (2011); Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, UK (2011) and Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX, USA (2011). He represented Britain at Biennale di Venezia in 1988 and was elected Royal Academician in 1994. Tony Cragg received the Praemium Imperiale for Sculpture, Tokyo, Japan (2007), was awarded the First Class Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2012) and was made a Knight's Bachelor in 2016.
Currently also on show is Line of Thought, a solo exhibition at Tony Cragg's Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden in Wuppertal, including all three pavilions with sculptures in bronze, stainless and Corten steel, wood and Murano glass as well as his drawings until January 2026. The accompanying extensive catalogue has been published by Jon Wood at Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, Cologne.
Photos © Achim Kukulies
