Antony Gormley Argues Sculpture Offers Radical Antidote to Digital Age in ArtReview Essay

Antony Gormley positions sculpture as the most radical art form in a philosophical essay for ArtReview's September 2025 issue. He argues that as urban life becomes increasingly constrained by digital integration, sculpture provides a powerful physical counterpoint to virtual experiences. Gormley contends that sculpture's material presence disrupts functional urban logic, demanding direct physical engagement through seeing, touching, and imagining. This tactile confrontation with three-dimensional objects in public spaces returns fundamental questions about human existence to viewers. The artist suggests sculpture's atavistic nature predates language and offers resistance to screen-based communication's effects on attention spans and neural pathways. Gormley's own public works deliberately displace human spaces to provoke examination of our relationship to the physical world. His essay connects sculpture's material transformation of matter to personal liberty and imagination. The publication coincides with two major exhibitions of Gormley's work opening in September 2025: INEXTRICABLE at Thaddaeus Ropac Seoul and White Cube Seoul runs from September 2 to November 8, while SURVEY at Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas is on view from September 13 to January 4.