Tony Cragg exhibition brings contemporary energy to Salzburg events

A major highlight among Salzburg events this summer, the DomQuartier hosts Tony Cragg: Zeiten—the first-ever contemporary sculpture exhibition staged in the opulent State Rooms of the Salzburg Residenz.

Running from July 24th to October 6th, 2025, this landmark Tony Cragg exhibition was created in collaboration with the Thaddaeus Ropac gallery and marks a striking dialogue between centuries-old architecture and cutting-edge contemporary sculpture. Celebrated British artist and Turner Prize laureate Tony Cragg brings his innovative works into direct conversation with the historic interiors, forging new ways to engage with material, space, and tradition.

Tony Cragg sculpture in conversation with history

Renowned for his exploration of structure and form, Cragg developed an entirely new body of work tailored to the Salzburg Residenz’s grand architecture. His sculptures, in some cases, draw inspiration from specific decorative elements — such as the curled legs of Biedermeier furniture — revealing a sensitivity to the aesthetic codes of the past while radically reinterpreting them.

The exhibition features an impressive range of Tony Cragg’s sculpture, from intricate glass forms that glimmer like captured motion, to monumental stone compositions that seem to pulse with organic energy. A standout example is a series of fluid forms carved from Iranian stone, which the artist first encountered during exhibitions in Tehran and Isfahan — each piece exemplifying Cragg’s ongoing dialogue between material history and future potential.

A contemporary sculpture exhibition with expansive vision

As part of the wider contemporary sculpture exhibition, three additional large-scale works — Mixed Feelings, Runner, and Points of View — are installed outdoors at Salzburg’s Krauthügel. This secondary location, nestled in a tranquil corner of the city, offers a natural stage for Cragg’s monumental pieces, reinforcing the show’s theme of transformation through space.

Cragg views sculpture not simply as static form but as a direct intervention into perception: “Any change in material form,” he states, “immediately alters how we think and feel — and therefore how we act. In this way, all art deals ultimately with the human condition.”