The artist’s works look good not only in museums and galleries, but also in city squares and parks. Tony Craig has found a unique way to combine the natural and man-made worlds in sculpture, and he continues his formal quest and exploration of the possibilities offered by a wide range of materials. Tony Craig creates abstract sculptures, and the forms he creates seem simultaneously unfamiliar and familiar. These can be both natural phenomena that surprise us deep in the forest or the ocean, and fragments of bodies that resemble the backs of women painted by Boris Bērzins in some of the new works exhibited in Salzburg.
Tony Craig is one of the most important contemporary sculptors. Photo – Charles Dipras
In Salzburg, stainless steel sculptures (series Incidents) and softer, more organic forms (series Integers), made of wood, bronze and Guatemalan green marble. Tony Craig’s polymorphic sculptures created from plywood mimic the layers of ancient sediments. When they are cast in bronze, they appear heavy, almost enclosed in themselves, and thus emphasize the author’s understanding of how the material affects the perception of each work. “Each change of material form has an immediate impact on our thoughts, feelings, actions, and therefore on the future,” the artist claims.
Tony Craig. Karst. 2020. Bronza, 500 kg. 125 x 136 x 96 cm
The exhibition emphasizes the playful relationship between organic and geometric forms such as series Integers the works are juxtaposed with more complex sculptures whose pulsating forms extend both inwards and outwards. Among them are formations that resemble hardened emulsion drops and foam. When making works in bronze, the sculptor gives an impression of plasticity to this extremely hard and heavy material. Tony Craig’s monumental work Karst (2020) recall geological patterns of erosion.
The artist explains: “Although I am most interested in the human figure, I have always paid close attention to the forms of nature.” Inspired by karst landscapes, topography formed by the erosion of soluble rocks such as limestone, Tony Craig’s sculptures use the complex textures and fractures found in these natural formations. The artist’s works radiate a special energy, the sculptures captivate the viewer with their story, tense dynamism and the way they affect the space around them.
Tony Craig was born in Liverpool. Since 1979, he lives and works in Wuppertal, Germany. Currently in Dusseldorf Art Palace there is a retrospective of his works Please tap!/Please Touch!which will be open until May 26.
Information about the exhibition in Salzburg and a video interview with Tony Craig: ropac.net
2024-04-03 22:55:29
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