In his artworks, he has employed more materials than most artists, and tested them to their limits through a wide variety of means, so that he seems to be one hundred sculptors at any one time. Many of Cragg's early works are made from found materials, discarded construction materials, and disposed household materials. This gave him a large range of mainly man-made materials and facilitated the thematic concerns that became characteristic of his work up to the present. During the 1970s he made sculptures using simple techniques such as stacking, splitting, and crushing. In 1978 he collected discarded plastic fragments and arranged them into color categories. Shortly after this he made works on the floor and wall reliefs, which formed images.
His sculptures consist of a lot of different materials such as; stone, clay, bronze, glass, different synthetic materials like polystyrene, carbon- or glass-fiber. His sensitivity to different materials is and has been the starting point for his work. To a great extent, his choice of material has determined the form, which a sculpture has taken on. Different materials give different emotional experiences, both for the artist and for us as observers. . Cragg's early works of the 1970s were mostly made with found objects through which Cragg questioned and tested possibilities. Later pieces demonstrated a shift of interest to surface quality and how that could be manipulated, and a play with unlikely juxtapositions of materials.
In the years around 1980, Tony Cragg became acclaimed for his sculptures and pictures which consisted of things he found, fragments of furniture, household objects of different materials, plastic toys, etc., which were often chosen for their color, and which, laid out on the floor or fixed to a wall, together created and portrayed forms recognizable from everyday life.
In his latest works, Cragg used more traditional materials, such as wood, bronze, and marble, often making simple forms from them, such as test tubes. In his sculptures exhibited in Malmo Konsthall, and which largely date from the last four years, there is a new transparency, visual delicacy and sensitivity. The restless energy which has long characterized Tony Cragg's work is starting to mellow, and features of timeless playfulness are emerging. His sculptures begin to look more modernized then his usual style. Even more than before, this playfulness is something which invites us to share a dialogue with the artist.
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