HANOVER.- The kestnergesellschaft is showing a combination of new, previously unseen works and earlier pieces by the sculptor Anthony Cragg. The exhibition, which is being presented at the kestnergesellschaft and the NORD/LB art gallery, conveys an impression of the varied output of this internationally significant artist.

The range of Cragg’s work is reflected in selected individual pieces from various creative periods. Large-scale works are represented alongside smaller sculptures, drawings, prints and graphics. This approach illustrates the sculptor’s influences and working method and provides an insight into his extensive oeuvre. Sculptures from the series Early Forms and Rational Beings, which were mostly created in the past two decades, are presented together with earlier works that clearly speak of the young Cragg’s involvement with arte povera and land art. In the early 1980s Cragg pointed out the varied relationships people have with their environment by collecting, arranging and connecting materials found in his surroundings as well as incorporating overarching materialistic, figurative and scientific aspects. These are still a focus of his work, along with a pronounced interest in physical, biological and neurological processes and forms. With the creation of each new sculpture, Cragg releases the energies and potential of the material he uses.

Anthony Cragg (*1949 in Liverpool, lives in Wuppertal) is one of the world’s most well-known and influential sculptors. The kestnergesellschaft presented his work as early as 1985. In 1988 Cragg was awarded the Turner Prize, and in the same year he conceived the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Since then Cragg has exhibited several times at the documenta in Kassel and has been the recipient of numerous important prizes, including the Japanese Praemiun Imperiale for Sculpture (2007). Anthony Cragg has lived in Wuppertal since 1977 and has taught at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf since 1978, becoming its principal in 2009. In 2008 he opened the Waldfrieden Sculpture Park, in which the work of numerous internationally important colleagues can be seen alongside his own work.