Antony Gormley

Anthony Gormley's sculptures and drawings of the human figure are amongst the most recognisable, not only in contemporary art but, in the history of art itself. Awarded the Turner Prize in 1994 for Field for the British Isles, his creations relate the human body to its surrounding space in a poignantly existential manner.

This existentialism can be illustrated no more clearly than in his 2007 work Event Horizon. 31 life-sized casts of the artist's own body were installed around and on top of prominent buildings along London's South Bank, and later in locations around New York City's Madison Square. Gormley said of the New York installation that "Within the condensed environment of Manhattan's topography, the level of tension between the palpable, the perceivable and the imaginable is heightened because of the density and scale of the buildings" and that in this context, the project should "activate the skyline in order to encourage people to look around. In this process of looking and finding, or looking and seeking, one perhaps re-assess one's own position in the world and becomes aware of one's status of embedment." Few artists can have achieved so successfully, so many unique personal resonances from the viewer's response to art in the public place.

Gormley created, in 1994, arguably Britain's best known public sculpture, Angel of the North. He also produces works on paper of great consideration and beauty, and regards drawing as a core part of his artistic process. Often made at night, his drawings are spontaneous and direct, often employing unusual materials such as blood, earth, casein (a milk-based protein), and bleach.

The list of public collections that hold his work is extremely comprehensive:

Arts Council of England
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
British Council
British Museum, London
Henry Moore Foundation for the Study of Sculpture
Jerwood Collection, Witley
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh
Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds
Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester
Peterborough Sculpture Trust
Science Museum, London
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton
Tate, London

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Museum of Modern Art, Vienna, Austria
Rupertinum Museum Moderne Kunst, Salzburg, Austria
Lhoist Collection, Brussels, Belgium
Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada
Montreal Musée des Beaux Arts, Canada
Guangdong Museum of Contemporary Art, Guangzhou, China
Herning Kunstmuseum, Denmark
Arken Museum of Modern Art, Denmark
Louisiana Museum, Humblebaek, Denmark
Sastamoinen Collection, Finland
Centre Georges Pompidou, France
Staatliche Museen Kassel, Neue Galerie, Kassel, Germany
Stadt Kassel, Germany
Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany
Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Germany
Museum Würth, Künzelsau, Germany
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Galleria de Arte Moderna, Torino, Italy
Tokyo City Opera, Japan
Kirishima Sculpture Park, Japan
Nagoya City Art Museum, Japan
Iwaki City Art Museum, Fukushima, Japan
The Hakone Open-air Museum, Japan
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
Tokushima Art Museum, Japan
Sapporo Sculpture Park, Hokkaido, Japan
Wakayama Prefectoral Museum, Japan
Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Monterrey, Mexico
Caldic Collection, The Hague, Netherlands
Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo, Norway
Museet for Samtidskunst, Oslo, Norway
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal
Fundação Berardo, Sintra, Portugal
State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia
Malmo Konsthall, Malmo, Sweden
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Umedalen Sculpture Foundation, Umea, Sweden
Weltkunst Foundation, Zurich, Switzerland
Pinchuk Art Centre, Ukraine
deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum, Lincoln, USA
Marguiles Foundation, Florida, USA
Museum of Modern Art, Fort Worth, USA
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, USA
Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, USA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, USA
Walker Arts Centre, Minneapolis, USA