Heavy Metal, a new Oxfordshire exhibition this summer, brings together seminal work by British abstract sculptor Anthony Caro OM CBE (1924–2013) alongside pioneering works by Wroughton artist James Capper (b 1987). Esther Lafferty finds out more.
The exhibition includes large-scale sculpture by both artists showcasing the legacy of Caro’s revolutionary abstraction, tracing the evolution of British sculpture in the 1960s to Capper’s twenty-first century mechanical works, and exploring the artists’ cross-generational dialogue.
Caro is widely celebrated for revolutionising modern art by setting aside the traditional pedestal and creating large, non-figurative sculptures made of welded industrial steel and found objects, painted in bright colours. His practice moved British sculpture away from traditional processes of casting by repurposing scrap industrial material for use in abstract sculpture.
Deyan Sudjic, British writer and broadcaster, and former director of Design Museum explains, “Caro studied engineering at Cambridge, deciding to become an artist only after completing his compulsory military service. He was at the Royal Academy schools at a time when higher education was still free, but when Britain had not yet emerged fully from post war austerity. There was still no commercial market for contemporary art to speak of in London. Discussion and debate in the art world took place almost exclusively in the art schools, and young artists depended on what they earned from teaching in them to support themselves. Famously, Caro worked as an assistant to Henry Moore before going through the liberating experience of spending time in America.”
And it was on his return from North America in 1959 that Caro, inspired by the ‘rule-breaking dynamism’ of the American artists of the time, moved away from traditional sculpture methods and materials, instead using raw steel, welding techniques, and industrial paint.
Eight of Caro’s large-scale sculptures demonstrate his mastery of an industrial vocabulary that rejected traditional materials and processes in favour of these new ideas and illustrate the range of his approach over several decades. These include the enigmatic Vespers (1972–74) and the bold red Aurora (2000–03) which, with a tank at its heart, was created with a salvaged oceanic buoy suspended above stylised waves. These highlight his bold use of colour, while Park Avenue Series: Towards Morning (2011–12), a choreographed assemblage reminiscent of Kandinsky’s lines, has a natural surface of unpainted steel suggesting a relationship with architecture and urban space.
James Capper’s connection to Caro is both artistic and personal. Early in his career, in 2010, Capper showed one of his mobile hydraulic sculptures in an exhibition in which Caro was also exhibiting. He has described this as an important moment in the development of his practice.
“Artists don’t necessarily need to share objectives and experiences for it to make sense to show their work side by side, and to see a fruitful outcome. Caro and Capper were born generations apart, and began their careers in very different circumstances,” continues Sudjic.
And the artists’ shared material preoccupations are clear: Caro’s command of welded steel creates striking forms, whilst Capper’s use of vibrant colour echoes Caro’s bold painted steel works.
Today, trained as a welder and a graduate of the Royal College of Art, James Capper embraces the material possibilities that Caro’s pioneering influence brought into the realm of art and continues the appropriation of industrial forms in contemporary art.
With a background in agricultural mechanics, he fabricates innovative large-scale sculptures that mesh the field of speculative engineering with fine art. By experimenting technically and aesthetically with industrial materials for utility on a small and large scale, he questions both the limits and behaviours of heavy machinery and, as Caro did, the perceived boundaries of sculpture.
IRIS, the first of Capper’s kinetic ‘heliotropic’ (or sun-following) sculptures, is on show alongside engaging preparatory drawings and maquettes of the work, illustrating the artist’s process from idea to 2D image, through to a moving sculpture. Painted in block colours of marine paint, the orange, yellow and blue of construction sites, and produced using steel and various other metals, the visual and material influence of Caro is evident.
Although the parallels between his work and Caro’s are undeniable, Capper’s work focuses on biomimicry and mechanisation, as he investigates the use of hydraulic engineering to replicate innate biological movement.
Designed to move using hydraulic systems, his sculptures often take inspiration from biological processes, and the forms of Ripper and Atlas Tines, for example, emulate teeth and talons. Like lobster claws, or Galapagos finches evolved for specific tasks, the Nipper collection presents four different designs for cutters that, whilst sculptures, can be used to cut through materials. Thus, while his pieces function as artworks, Capper also explore ideas of utility within 'divisions' of machinery, for earth marking, or inspired by the requirements of aviation or offshore environments.
The large-scale sculptures of both artists offer a bold focal point in the Little Milton countryside at Albion Barn and Fields, a 50-acre sculpture garden which, celebrating its fifth birthday this summer, spans open vistas and secluded woodland areas and includes a natural pond and rewilded landscape. The tension between the stark industrial forms and the pastoral setting is striking, highlighting the importance of both art and industry in today’s beautiful and yet threatened landscapes. Capper’s designs for a tree-planter seems particularly appropriate.
Heavy Metal is open on Thursdays and Fridays until 1 October 2026. Entry is free but visitors should book a time slot via albionbarn.com or by emailing info@albionbarn.com.
The show is accompanied by a new book Heavy Metal examining Anthony Caro’s lasting impact on British sculpture and his influence on James Capper’s work. It includes an essay by Deyan Sudjic.
