Discover Body Buildings exhibition at Galleria Continua, Beijing

The China-Italy Chamber of Commerce is pleased to present you the exhibition "Body Buildings" by Antony Gormley, organized by its Member Galleria Continua. The exhibition, running from November 14, 2024, to April 14, 2025, at Galleria Continua in Beijing's 798 Art District, marks Gormley’s third solo exhibition in the space.

About the exhibition

"Body Buildings" explores the intricate relationship between the human body and the built environment, featuring sculptures and drawings that challenge our perception of space, architecture, and urban life. The central installation, Resting Place II, invites visitors into a dynamic field of 132 life-size clay figures, reflecting on themes of rest, migration, and human habitation. Alongside this, other works in iron and clay further investigate how urban infrastructure shapes human interactions.

This exhibition reinforces the cultural bridge between Italy and China, showcasing the innovative and thought-provoking works of a globally celebrated artist.

About the artist

Antony Gormley, photograph by John O’Rourke. © the artist.

Antony Gormley (b. 1950, London) is an internationally renowned artist celebrated for his sculptures, installations, and public artworks that explore the relationship between the human body and space. Through his work, Gormley challenges perceptions of architecture, urban life, and our place within the cosmos. His career spans decades, with exhibitions at major institutions worldwide, including Musée Rodin in Paris, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and the Long Museum in Shanghai. Notably, his iconic public works, such as Angel of the North in England and Another Place on Crosby Beach, have become cultural landmarks. A recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Turner Prize, he was knighted in 2014 for his contributions to the arts.

About Galleria Continua

Galleria Continua was founded in 1990 by Mario Cristiani, Lorenzo Fiaschi and Maurizio Rigillo, with the intention, evident in the name, to give continuity to contemporary art in a landscape rich with the signs of ancient art. Occupying a former cinema, Galleria Continua established itself and thrived in an entirely unexpected location in a town - San Gimignano – steeped in history, timeless and magnificent.

In 2004 Galleria Continua began a new adventure in Beijing, China, showing contemporary Western artists in an area where they are still little seen.

Three years later, in 2007, Galleria Continua inaugurated a new peculiar site for large-scale creations - Les Moulins - in the Parisian countryside.

In 2015 Galleria Continua embarked on a new path, opening a space in La Habana, Cuba, devoted to cultural projects designed to overcome every frontier. In 2020, the same year as Galleria Continua’s thirtieth anniversary, a new space in Rome opened, dedicated to an open interculturality and new forms of dialogue and encounters between art and the public. In 2020, a space in São Paulo also opened, situated inside the Pacaembu sports complex. In early 2021 a new space opened in Paris in the heart of the Marais, just a few steps from the Centre Pompidou. In the same year, the gallery also inaugurated a space inside the most iconic hotel in the world, the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah in Dubai. In 2024, GALLERIA CONTINUA opened a third French space in the heart of Matignon, the historic epicentre of the art market and a vibrant district in the west of Paris, where major international contemporary art galleries, modern art dealers, and iconic houses working in the fields of fashion, art, and lifestyle attract visitors from all over the world.