ARTISTS
Antony Gormley: CONSTRUCT
07 May, 2016 - 18 Jun, 2016
Sean Kelly is pleased to present CONSTRUCT, a major one-person exhibition of new and key early works by world-renowned artist Antony Gormley. Acclaimed for his sculptures, installations and public artworks that investigate the relationship of the human body to space, Gormley鈥檚 fifth solo exhibition with Sean Kelly engages the grid to evoke the experience of inhabiting a human body at 鈥渢he other side of appearance.鈥� The opening reception will take place on Friday, May 6, from 6 to 8pm, and the artist will be present.
The exhibition begins with a life-size work from Gormley鈥檚 series of 鈥楤odycases,鈥� Bridge (1985), in the front gallery space. This is one of the earliest works made from a plaster mould of the artist鈥檚 body, strengthened with fiberglass and encased in a skin of lead. Gormley sees Bridge as an objective mapping of the subjective space of the human body. The visible soldering lines on its surface form clear horizontal and vertical axes: the body is treated as the location of physical and spatial experience. Bridge is presented alongside the wall relief Mother鈥檚 Pride IV (1982, remade in 2012), in which an impression of the artist鈥檚 body in the foetal position has literally been eaten out of a tightly packed grid of slices of industrially produced 鈥楳other鈥檚 Pride鈥� white bread. Also on view alongside these works is Scaffold (2015), a recent work in which Gormley has translated the grid of horizontal and vertical lines of Bridge into a freestanding, three-dimensional mapping of the internal volumes of the body. Together these three works propose that we consider the body less as an object and more as a site and agent of transformation.
In the main gallery, the artist鈥檚 exploration of the potential of the 鈥榤apping鈥� of body space continues with boldly physical sculptures that increase the dynamic between space and mass. Visitors will encounter five new monumental works from Gormley鈥檚 recent 鈥楤ig Beamer鈥� series. These previously unexhibited works deconstruct and reassemble the interior volume of the body through interlocking steel beams that run in all three axes. Created at one-and-a-half-times life-size, they represent a body in five unstable moments of rest鈥攆rom crouching to fully erect. In spite of their grand scale, the works remain remarkably playful.
CONSTRUCT concludes in the lower gallery space with two new 鈥楽tretched Blockworks.鈥� These works continue the artist鈥檚 engagement with the massive volumes of architecture by using rectangular iron blocks to translate body space into mass. Unlike the 鈥楤ig Beamers,鈥� these volumes are stretched along a single axis to echo the forms of classic New York high-rises of the early twentieth century.
The exhibition begins with a life-size work from Gormley鈥檚 series of 鈥楤odycases,鈥� Bridge (1985), in the front gallery space. This is one of the earliest works made from a plaster mould of the artist鈥檚 body, strengthened with fiberglass and encased in a skin of lead. Gormley sees Bridge as an objective mapping of the subjective space of the human body. The visible soldering lines on its surface form clear horizontal and vertical axes: the body is treated as the location of physical and spatial experience. Bridge is presented alongside the wall relief Mother鈥檚 Pride IV (1982, remade in 2012), in which an impression of the artist鈥檚 body in the foetal position has literally been eaten out of a tightly packed grid of slices of industrially produced 鈥楳other鈥檚 Pride鈥� white bread. Also on view alongside these works is Scaffold (2015), a recent work in which Gormley has translated the grid of horizontal and vertical lines of Bridge into a freestanding, three-dimensional mapping of the internal volumes of the body. Together these three works propose that we consider the body less as an object and more as a site and agent of transformation.
In the main gallery, the artist鈥檚 exploration of the potential of the 鈥榤apping鈥� of body space continues with boldly physical sculptures that increase the dynamic between space and mass. Visitors will encounter five new monumental works from Gormley鈥檚 recent 鈥楤ig Beamer鈥� series. These previously unexhibited works deconstruct and reassemble the interior volume of the body through interlocking steel beams that run in all three axes. Created at one-and-a-half-times life-size, they represent a body in five unstable moments of rest鈥攆rom crouching to fully erect. In spite of their grand scale, the works remain remarkably playful.
CONSTRUCT concludes in the lower gallery space with two new 鈥楽tretched Blockworks.鈥� These works continue the artist鈥檚 engagement with the massive volumes of architecture by using rectangular iron blocks to translate body space into mass. Unlike the 鈥楤ig Beamers,鈥� these volumes are stretched along a single axis to echo the forms of classic New York high-rises of the early twentieth century.
Concurrent with the exhibition at Sean Kelly, Gormley's latest site-specific permanent public installation,Chord, will be on view at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Building 2鈥攚hich houses the Department of Mathematics and sections of the Department of Chemistry鈥攂eginning April 23, 2016. A 40- foot-high spiral column made from a myriad of polyhedra, the work connects the floor of the building鈥檚 central staircase to the skylight. In contrast to the fixity of the classical column or Brancusi's Endless Column, which make a solid bridge between above and below, Chord evokes a dynamic relationship between matter and energy in connecting earth to sky.
Sean Kelly is pleased to present CONSTRUCT, a major one-person exhibition of new and key early works by world-renowned artist Antony Gormley. Acclaimed for his sculptures, installations and public artworks that investigate the relationship of the human body to space, Gormley鈥檚 fifth solo exhibition with Sean Kelly engages the grid to evoke the experience of inhabiting a human body at 鈥渢he other side of appearance.鈥� The opening reception will take place on Friday, May 6, from 6 to 8pm, and the artist will be present.
The exhibition begins with a life-size work from Gormley鈥檚 series of 鈥楤odycases,鈥� Bridge (1985), in the front gallery space. This is one of the earliest works made from a plaster mould of the artist鈥檚 body, strengthened with fiberglass and encased in a skin of lead. Gormley sees Bridge as an objective mapping of the subjective space of the human body. The visible soldering lines on its surface form clear horizontal and vertical axes: the body is treated as the location of physical and spatial experience. Bridge is presented alongside the wall relief Mother鈥檚 Pride IV (1982, remade in 2012), in which an impression of the artist鈥檚 body in the foetal position has literally been eaten out of a tightly packed grid of slices of industrially produced 鈥楳other鈥檚 Pride鈥� white bread. Also on view alongside these works is Scaffold (2015), a recent work in which Gormley has translated the grid of horizontal and vertical lines of Bridge into a freestanding, three-dimensional mapping of the internal volumes of the body. Together these three works propose that we consider the body less as an object and more as a site and agent of transformation.
In the main gallery, the artist鈥檚 exploration of the potential of the 鈥榤apping鈥� of body space continues with boldly physical sculptures that increase the dynamic between space and mass. Visitors will encounter five new monumental works from Gormley鈥檚 recent 鈥楤ig Beamer鈥� series. These previously unexhibited works deconstruct and reassemble the interior volume of the body through interlocking steel beams that run in all three axes. Created at one-and-a-half-times life-size, they represent a body in five unstable moments of rest鈥攆rom crouching to fully erect. In spite of their grand scale, the works remain remarkably playful.
CONSTRUCT concludes in the lower gallery space with two new 鈥楽tretched Blockworks.鈥� These works continue the artist鈥檚 engagement with the massive volumes of architecture by using rectangular iron blocks to translate body space into mass. Unlike the 鈥楤ig Beamers,鈥� these volumes are stretched along a single axis to echo the forms of classic New York high-rises of the early twentieth century.
The exhibition begins with a life-size work from Gormley鈥檚 series of 鈥楤odycases,鈥� Bridge (1985), in the front gallery space. This is one of the earliest works made from a plaster mould of the artist鈥檚 body, strengthened with fiberglass and encased in a skin of lead. Gormley sees Bridge as an objective mapping of the subjective space of the human body. The visible soldering lines on its surface form clear horizontal and vertical axes: the body is treated as the location of physical and spatial experience. Bridge is presented alongside the wall relief Mother鈥檚 Pride IV (1982, remade in 2012), in which an impression of the artist鈥檚 body in the foetal position has literally been eaten out of a tightly packed grid of slices of industrially produced 鈥楳other鈥檚 Pride鈥� white bread. Also on view alongside these works is Scaffold (2015), a recent work in which Gormley has translated the grid of horizontal and vertical lines of Bridge into a freestanding, three-dimensional mapping of the internal volumes of the body. Together these three works propose that we consider the body less as an object and more as a site and agent of transformation.
In the main gallery, the artist鈥檚 exploration of the potential of the 鈥榤apping鈥� of body space continues with boldly physical sculptures that increase the dynamic between space and mass. Visitors will encounter five new monumental works from Gormley鈥檚 recent 鈥楤ig Beamer鈥� series. These previously unexhibited works deconstruct and reassemble the interior volume of the body through interlocking steel beams that run in all three axes. Created at one-and-a-half-times life-size, they represent a body in five unstable moments of rest鈥攆rom crouching to fully erect. In spite of their grand scale, the works remain remarkably playful.
CONSTRUCT concludes in the lower gallery space with two new 鈥楽tretched Blockworks.鈥� These works continue the artist鈥檚 engagement with the massive volumes of architecture by using rectangular iron blocks to translate body space into mass. Unlike the 鈥楤ig Beamers,鈥� these volumes are stretched along a single axis to echo the forms of classic New York high-rises of the early twentieth century.
Concurrent with the exhibition at Sean Kelly, Gormley's latest site-specific permanent public installation,Chord, will be on view at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Building 2鈥攚hich houses the Department of Mathematics and sections of the Department of Chemistry鈥攂eginning April 23, 2016. A 40- foot-high spiral column made from a myriad of polyhedra, the work connects the floor of the building鈥檚 central staircase to the skylight. In contrast to the fixity of the classical column or Brancusi's Endless Column, which make a solid bridge between above and below, Chord evokes a dynamic relationship between matter and energy in connecting earth to sky.
Artists on show
What's on nearby
06 Nov, 2025
- 19 Dec, 2025
06 Nov, 2025
- 20 Dec, 2025
30 Oct, 2025
- 18 Dec, 2025
