British sculptor Antony Gormley, renowned for monumental public works including the iconic "Angel of the North," is finally presenting his first solo exhibition in Seoul this September. The 74-year-old artist, who spent three transformative years studying Buddhism in India and Sri Lanka during his twenties, will showcase "Inextricable" simultaneously at two prominent galleries - White Cube and Thaddaeus Ropac - coinciding with Frieze Seoul.
Born in London in 1950, Gormley has built his reputation on exploring the human body as "our first habitat," a philosophy deeply influenced by his early Buddhist studies in Asia. His practice has evolved dramatically from early lead body-cases using his own physical form as material to recent digital experiments that fragment and reconstruct the human figure through architectural geometry. The artist is best known for large-scale public installations such as "Angel of the North" (1988) and "Another Place" (2005), where 100 cast-iron figures face the sea.
The Seoul exhibitions explore how urban infrastructure shapes consciousness in cities where over half of humanity now lives. At White Cube, positioned at ground level with works facing street-side windows, Gormley presents "Blockworks" - massive forms that deliberately clash with the gallery's architectural scale as "a tribute to the structure of the city that surrounds it." Meanwhile, at Thaddaeus Ropac's elevated first-floor space, "Extended Strapworks" features pieces literally dependent on walls, emphasizing "our inextricable dependency on an ever more intelligent built environment."
"Late capitalism is based on competition and false scarcity," Gormley explained regarding his decision to work with both traditionally rival galleries. "They have been traditionally rivals, and I thought this was a very good opportunity to let them not be rivals, but be collaborators." The artist expressed his affection for both galleries, saying he "didn't want to choose one over the other."
Gormley's connection to Korea spans many years through various projects. He previously worked with the Kim Dae-jung Foundation on an unrealized utopian project featuring identical winged figures that would have looked at each other across 200 kilometers - one positioned on Seoul's central post office and another atop a bridge in Pyongyang, North Korea. More recently, he has been developing work in Sinan, where he was "deeply moved by the community's connection to natural processes - fermentation, salt-making, seaweed farming."
The Seoul shows follow Gormley's ongoing collaboration with renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando at Museum SAN, where their permanent installation "Ground" (2025) continues the artist's investigation of how space and time animate the human form. This partnership represents a significant exploration of Asian architectural philosophy integrated with Gormley's sculptural vision.
Gormley's artistic process has undergone significant transformation with his shift from direct body casting to digital scanning technology. "It was a very pragmatic decision," he noted, explaining that digital scanning allows for "more precarious positions that we could ever have imagined or managed convincingly in plaster." However, he remains skeptical of purely virtual experiences, stating he created one virtual reality piece but "won't ever make another one" due to its lack of physical substance.
The artist critiques the digital age's relationship with physicality, arguing that "the cyber world invites us to dispense with our bodies or treat them almost as pets to be exercised, fed, housed." He views the promise that we can be "fully fulfilled by data" as fundamentally false, maintaining his commitment to physical, tangible sculptural experiences.
Just weeks after the Seoul opening, Gormley will present his first major U.S. museum survey at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, opening September 13. Curated by Jed Morse, this retrospective will showcase the artist's journey through a model gallery displaying both realized and unrealized works, with particular emphasis on his permanent public installations that occupy collective spaces.
Reflecting on his evolving relationship with his own work, Gormley offered a profound insight: "I used to think that I made my work, but now I think my work makes me." He explained that he now finds himself "answering its demands, not making demands on it," with each piece containing "the foundation of the next work" and questions that need re-examination. "Everything I make now is a surprise to me," he concluded, noting that he can no longer trace works to personal experiences but must explain them through "the ontology of the work itself."
The timing of these exhibitions carries particular significance, occurring amid global political tensions. Gormley's concurrent shows in Seoul and Dallas are "mediated both globally and materially" by his contribution to the first Bukhara Biennial in Uzbekistan, positioned at the heart of the Eurasian landmass. He sees this as representing the intersection between "an ever more isolated, but continuing to be powerful, America, and an East Asian society that has been profoundly influenced by America and yet is trying to discover its own identity as a global community."
