Antony Gormley on Sculpture and the Distracted World
“Art has to play the game of distraction or spectacle.”
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.”
“In an attention economy, where everybody is wanting your attention, art has to play the game of distraction or spectacle.”
His dialogue with the city is not confined to the gallery. As part of the exhibition, Gormley collaborated with the Nasher to place his signature sculptures on buildings around the Arts District, an act that underscores Dallas’s public commitment to art. For Gormley, this is a form of civic engagement. He sees these works as a direct confrontation with urban architecture, challenging the notion that a building is simply a utility by adding a human dimension to the skyline. This turns the city into an open-air exhibition, where his art becomes a part of the everyday routine.
His work is driven by a simple, profound idea: to make the familiar strange. This is evident in his early work, My Clothes, which consists of his entire wardrobe cut in half and pinned to a wall. “Our clothing is probably the most important part of how we are identified,” he explained, noting that his work aims to transform the object “in order to make it eloquent.”
Ultimately, the body itself is Gormley’s central subject. He seeks to use the “sensate immediate experience of being in a body” as an instrument of awareness, a philosophical idea informed by his Buddhist practice. In a world where “everyone is wanting your attention,” he argues that art has to play the game of “distraction or spectacle.” But his sculptures offer a different path, they are not just things to be looked at, but a mirror or a test site for viewers to confront their own existence.
Antony Gormley’s survey is on view at the Nasher Sculpture Center through January 4, 2026.
Nasher Sculpture Center
2001 Flora St.
Dallas, TX 75201
