Antony Gormley on Sculpture and the Distracted World The artist discusses his major survey at the Nasher Sculpture Center

By Keith Estiler 

In an exclusive interview, British artist Antony Gormley described his major retrospective at the Nasher Sculpture Center as a deliberate dialogue with a city built for speed. His work is a philosophical counterpoint to a world defined by a relentless drive to do, rather than simply be.

Gormley, widely regarded as one of the most important sculptors of his generation, is best known for large-scale public works such as “Angel of the North” in England and Event Horizon, which placed life-size casts of his body across city skylines from London to Hong Kong. Since the early 1980s, his practice has revolved around the human form as both material and metaphor, situating the body as a vessel for consciousness and a marker of shared existence.

He opened his conversation by framing Dallas in stark terms. He noted that the city’s “muscle here is about getting things done and doing business,” defining it as a “transactional city.” He sees his sculptures as an antidote to this relentless motion, a chance to pause and reflect. The Nasher, he said, is the exception, a “world leader in its commitment to sculpture,” a place where a viewer can “take the time to not be distracted.”