Tony Cragg- 'Fragile Nature'

curated by James Putnam
Hotel Metropole, Venice - coinciding with Venice Glass Week

In collaboration with Berengo Sudio & Gervasuti Foundation
September 12, 2025

''Fragile Nature'

 A Series of Glass Sculptures by Tony Cragg to coincide with Venice Glass Week

 Materiality has always been a central concern for artist Tony Cragg who continues to explore the possibilities of using a wide range of materials to research formal aspects of both the natural and man-made worlds. Cragg is also interested how these material forms that look outwardly organic ultimately affect our ideas and emotions. He has been a pioneer in realizing the potential of glass as a versatile new fine art medium and continues to create innovative sculptures at the Berengo studio in Murano since the first edition of Glasstress in 2009. While this series of sculptures may appear to be inspired by organic forms they do not imitate nature, rather they more about the materiality of glass which is ultimately related to the processes involved in its composition. Silica, a type of sand is the most abundant material in the earth’s crust, which can be meted at a very high temperature in a furnace to become glass. The process of making it involve all the four elements of air, water, fire and earth so it closely interwoven with natural processes. While these sculptures represent a kind of aesthetic perfection they also possess an inherent fragility, perhaps unwittingly becoming a metaphor for our planet’s vulnerability from the human interaction with nature.

 Tony Cragg was born in Liverpool, UK in 1949 and studied at the Royal College of Art, London. He has exhibited widely internationally in major museums and participated in Documenta, Kassel in 1982 and 1987 and represented England at the Venice Biennale in 1988. He is recipient of the Turner Prize at the Tate Gallery, London in 1988, the prestigious Praemium Imperiale Award, Tokyo in 2007 and the Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award in 2017. He has also held professorships in German art academies and has lived and worked in Wuppertal, Germany since 1977.

Tony Cragg -Glass Sculpture

Tony Cragg -Glass Sculpture