TONY
CRAGG
Born in Liverpool, United Kingdom, 1949
The sculptor Tony Cragg is best known for his use of diverse materials, ranging from found objects to the more traditional bronze, wood, and marble. Cragg was born in Liverpool and and spent two years working as a lab technician before attending the Gloucestershire College of Art and Design and the Royal College of Art in London.
Cragg moved to Wuppertal in 1977, and has resided in Germany ever since. In his early work, he incorporated found materials, such as pieces of plastic, detritus from construction sites, and household wares, into his sculptures, creating flat mosaics and three-dimensional works with serrated and stacked elements.
In more recent works, Cragg has used traditional materials, such as bronze and wood, producing tall, sleek works with a rippled texture, conveying motion and animation. Cragg has taught at the School of Art in Düsseldorf since 1978, and has held professorships at several other arts institutions. He has been honored with the Turner Prize, an Order of Arts and Letters from the French Ministry of Culture, and the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association, and has exhibited work at the Venice Biennale.
Cragg currently divides his time between Wuppertal and Düsseldorf, and also has a studio on the island of Tjörn, off the coast of Sweden.