Antony Gormley and Magdalene Odundo to exhibit at Houghton Hall

Houghton Hall's 2024 programme will see Antony Gormley and Dame Magdalene Odundo stage major solo exhibitions.

Mr Gormley will present Time Horizon, with 100 life-size, cast iron bodies punctuating the grounds of Houghton Hall.

In the Hall and Contemporary Gallery, Dame Magdalene will present her first solo exhibition in the UK since her acclaimed 2019 event at The Hepworth Wakefield and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts.

Houghton Hall's 2024 programme will see Antony Gormley and Magdalene Odundo stage major solo presentations (Image: (c) copyright newzulu.com)

Time Horizon will run from Sunday, April 21 until Thursday, October 31, while Dame Magdalene's exhibition will run from Sunday, June 9 until Sunday, September 29.

Time Horizon, will feature across Houghton Hall's house and grounds, the first time the work has been staged in the UK since it was installed in Catanzaro, Italy, in 2006.

Featuring 100 life-size bodies, the sculptures will create a single horizontal plane across over 200 acres of parkland. Some sculptures will be buried and others elevated on concrete columns.

Time Horizon, Parco Archeologico Di Scolacium, Roccelletta Di Borgia, Catanzaro, Italy,2006 (Image: Peppe Avallone.© the artist)

This installation, which Mr Gormley describes as a form of acupuncture, interacts with the particularity of its surroundings, such as trees, the house, running deer, other sculptures and the changing conditions of the weather, and it invites visitors to become part of a "reflexive field".

The artist is most famously known for his Angel of the North - but he also created sculptures which caused controversy among students, staff and visitors at the University of East Anglia campus.

A respected ceramic artist, Dame Magdalene will present an exhibition of sculptures made and cited in response to the state rooms at Houghton Hall.

Dame Magdalene Odundo, Untitled(1991), Burnished and carbonised terracotta© Magdalene Odundo.Private Collection (Image: Dame Magdalene Odundo)

The exhibition will also include a new commission created during her recent residency at Wedgwood, reflecting on the history of the company, Josiah Wedgwood’s role in the abolitionist movement and the continued fight for racial equality.