Cragg is one of the most innovative and versatile sculptors in international contemporary art. His works are shown in exhibitions worldwide and are part of renowned collections and public spaces. Following the Museu de Serralves in Porto in 2004, the Museo Nacional de Arte Contemporânea (MNAC) is now presenting Cragg’s second institutional exhibition in Portugal.

The exhibition entitled “Rare Earth” comprises a collection of more than 50 works, including drawings and sculptures from 1979 to the present. In his sculptures, Tony Cragg reflects the hidden entanglements and relationships between humans and nature, inseparably uniting the abstract and the figurative. Beginning with assemblage objects that draw on Arte Povera and the aesthetics of readymades, and continuing with drawings and the technically and visually sophisticated sculptures of recent years, the artist attempts to explore the enormous potential of new forms and their associated meanings, demonstrating movement in action. In dialogue with the exhibition at the MNAC, a total of four of the artist’s sculptures will be shown in the historic center of Lisbon, one of Europe’s most popular and beautiful destinations.

Cragg’s sculpture “Stacks” is located directly on the waterfront. Along with three other sculptures, the viewer is presented with an impressive ensemble in which art and the city enter into a dialogue. The materials used in the sculptures are diverse: in “Points of View,” enormous dancing columns of gleaming silver stainless steel soar into the sky; “Runner” captivates with its green patina; and in the golden, shining sculpture “Integers,” one senses the weight of the material. The sculptures speak of Cragg’s inexhaustible wealth of form, which equally opens up an infinite range of associations for the viewer. Materials with diverse properties, very often the result of industrial technology, are skillfully forced by Tony Cragg and guided in unexpected directions—the result is a space of tension between natural substance and tangible energy.