The gallery is pleased to present Ge(schichte), a solo exhibition by Tony Cragg, marking a new and significant chapter in the artist’s long-standing dialogue with materiality, form, and the evolution of sculptural language.

The title Ge(schichte) combines two German terms that are central to Cragg’s practice: the prefix Ge–, which denotes a collection or accumulation, and Schicht, meaning layer. Together, they evoke the idea of stratification — material, temporal, and conceptual — and signal Cragg’s ongoing investigation into how the world is constructed, both physically and narratively.

For Cragg, sculpture is a means to explore how matter contains, stores, and transmits meaning. His long-standing use of overlapping forms — from early works titled Stack to the arrangements of objects created in the 1980s — reveals his interest in the taxonomy of everyday materials and in the boundary between natural and artificial landscapes. In his view, man-made objects function as “fossilised keys to a past time that is our present,” embodying the layered nature of history, memory, and experience.

Ge(schichte) brings together works that span different points in Cragg’s career, tracing a persistent fascination with the energy inherent in matter — organic and inorganic — and with the ways physical forms influence our perceptions, emotions, and ideas. From seminal pieces such as Riot (1987) to recent works including Incident, Stand, and Hedges, the exhibition highlights the artist’s ability to generate dynamic, fluid structures that oscillate between the familiar and the enigmatic.

Cragg’s sculptural approach does not imitate nature; rather, it questions why forms — including the human figure — appear as they do. His sculptures reveal the underlying complexity of what seems organic, exposing the intricate geometric and molecular structures that shape our presence in the world.

Presented throughout the gallery’s exhibition spaces, Ge(schichte) offers visitors an immersive encounter with one of the most influential sculptural voices of the past decades. A dedicated room also features a series of projections that situate the exhibition within the broader story of the gallery’s relationship with the artist.

(Text by Lisa [Tucci] Russo)