About the Exhibit 

Shockingly this was my first time visiting White Cube Gallery’s Mason's Yard location back in the fall of 2019, and it’s exactly what I would have expected from White Cube - a gorgeous, starkly minimal, multi-level concrete block. Inside was Antony Gormley’s show ‘In Formation’ - which featured sculptures on both floors. 

“‘In Formation’ by Antony Gormley, an exhibition of new cast iron work that questions to what extent we are the product of our environment, and to what extent we are makers of it.” (source) 

The ground floor was a simpler display dubbed ‘Stacks’ - with four sculptures, 1.5x the size of a human (see me for scale) made from cast iron blocks. I would love to know what shipping these costs. 

“Evoking the idea of the column, Gormley sees them as ‘reverse caryatids’, sculpted figures that served as architectural pillars in the ancient world. Rather than offering reinforcement, however, these ‘Stacks’ lean on the walls for support.” (source)

Down in the lower level gallery are sculptures named ‘Aggregates’ which are far more detailed and rust-colored. 

“The works in this exhibition are part of Gormley’s ongoing questioning of the human project in light of our industrial inheritance, our embodied selves at a time of perpetual mutability and the knowledge we now have of our profound effect on the elemental world.”(source)

About the Artist 

Antony Gormley is a British Sculptor, born in 1950. He studied art history at Trinity College in Cambridge. He then attended Saint Martin’s School of Art and then completed a graduate program in sculpture at Slade School of Fine Art. 

“Antony Gormley is widely acclaimed for his sculptures, installations and public artworks that investigate the relationship of the human body to space.” (source)

He’s won a handful of awards throughout his career including the famous Turner Prize in 1994.