Picture "Untitled" (1991)

Tony Cragg is an admirer of materials: "Material is everything we know - everything that is in a space, even things like emotions and intelligence have a material basis. So, if thoughts and feelings also have a material basis, then you can guess how sublime the material is," the artist said in an interview.

Whether wood, stone, stainless steel, fibreglass, bronze, plastics, Styrofoam or Kevlar - Cragg breathes soul into the materials when he creates sculptures whose unknown, amorphous forms fascinate and at the same time and raise questions. He is only inspired by his thoughts: "My original interest in making images and objects was, and still is, creating things that do not exist in nature or our functional world. Objects that reflect and express my feelings towards the world and my existence".

Cragg's sculpture park in Wuppertal, Germany, where he exhibits both his works and objects by fellow sculptors, is also dedicated to the diversity of forms: "We don't want to create fancy shows, conceptual stuff, a decorative showroom, but a place for people who have an interest in sculpture, who are seriously interested in forms and their meaning."

Tony Cragg, born in 1949 in Liverpool, first worked as a biochemist in a research laboratory and later studied art at various British universities. He worked as a professor in Metz, Berlin and Düsseldorf, where he was also the rector of the local art academy. Cragg is a member of the Royal Academy of Arts, London and the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire and is a recipient of the 1st Class Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In addition to the Turner Prize, he also received the Praemium Imperiale.

Tony Cragg has lived and worked in Wuppertal since 1977.