The State Art Gallery in Sopot proudly presents the art of Tony Cragg, one of best-known English artists. For more than 4 decades, he has relentlessly pursued new relationships between people and the physical world. He is a master of the material, freely using its different types such as stone, bronze, wood, metal, synthetic materials, and glass. In his sculptures, a propensity for experimentation is matched with unfailing perfection.
The exhibition features three sets of Cragg's works: on Gallery premises we display the artist's glass sculptures and installations as well as the drawings and watercolours accompanying them, while his sculptures will be installed in Park Północny in Sopot.
The works made of glass show the evolution of the artist's style from the early 1990s to the present. Taking advantage of the beauty of glass, its infinite possibilities, and the extraordinary fluidity of matter, the author transposed the ancient technique into innovative contemporary forms, which we can admire at the Sopot exhibition.
From the earliest years of his career, Cragg made drawings, prints, and watercolours. He almost daily draws in pencil on paper sketches for his projects and autonomous works. Our exhibition will gather works from 1999 to the present.
First of all, however, Park Północny in Sopot, stretching along the Baltic shore behind the Grand Hotel, is the setting of Tony Cragg’s iconic sculptures: Points of View – meandering silver columns, Mixed Feelings – a form that writhes dynamically upwards, and Versus and Masks, so far exhibited in museums, sculpture parks and public venues around the world.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue and a dedicated educational and events program related to contemporary sculpture.
The exhibition is held under the auspices of the British Council and the British Embassy.
Curator: Eulalia Domanowska