Sculptor Antony Gormley unveils a landmark exhibition and collaboration with architect Tadao Ando

On June 26th, 2025, Museum SAN in Wonju, South Korea, unveils Drawing on Space, the most expansive exhibition of British sculptor Antony Gormley’s work in the country to date. Running through November 30th, the exhibition spans 48 works, ranging from delicate drawings to immersive sculptural environments, and centers on the human body’s relationship to space, perception, and architecture. A major highlight is Ground, a new permanent installation designed in collaboration with renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando—a first-time partnership between the artist and the architect.

Set beneath the museum’s flower garden, Ground takes the form of a 25-meter-wide subterranean dome, illuminated only by a circular oculus. Inside, seven rust-hued cast-iron figures from sculptor Antony Gormley’s Blockworks series occupy the stillness of the concrete void, inviting visitors into a meditative sensory experience where nature, architecture, and sculpture converge. The space is aligned with the surrounding mountains, drawing the landscape into the artwork itself.

Throughout the Cheongjo wing’s three galleries, Antony Gormley’s exhibition continues this inquiry. Liminal Field presents porous, human-scale forms that resemble soap bubbles—suggesting the body as a permeable, transitional site. In Orbit Field II, visitors move through a matrix of suspended aluminum rings, activating the space with their own bodies in motion. Works on paper—explorations of mass, light, and inner architecture—bridge the material and the metaphysical.

According to sculptor Antony Gormley, sculpture is not about idealized form but about presence, perception, and activation. With Drawing on Space, Museum SAN furthers its mission to integrate art, nature, and architecture into a singular, contemplative experience. As Gormley notes, the goal is to allow “physical and imaginative space to come together.”