The Hayward Gallery has opened a major exhibition dedicated to British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor, marking his return to the Southbank Centre nearly three decades after the venue presented his first U.K. retrospective. Running through October 18, the exhibition brings together seminal works alongside recent sculptures, paintings, and immersive installations that examine perception, materiality, and the relationship between physical form and illusion.
Located at the Hayward Gallery in London, the survey highlights Kapoor’s long-standing exploration of what he describes as “the space of the object,” presenting works that challenge viewers’ understanding of scale, depth, and presence.
Monumental installations redefine the gallery space
Three large-scale installations form the core of the exhibition. One gallery houses an inflated PVC membrane, tightly stretched between the floor and ceiling, creating a monumental intervention that alters visitors’ perception of both space and proportion.
Meanwhile, another installation introduces a winding sculptural form resembling a blood-red mountainous threshold that cuts through the gallery. Elsewhere, “Mount Moriah at the Gate of the Ghetto” (2022) appears suspended above the floor, creating the illusion of a massive form hovering just inches above the gallery tiles.
Additionally, several of Kapoor’s signature works engage directly with the Hayward Gallery’s Brutalist architecture. Vantablack surfaces create seemingly bottomless voids within the interiors, while reflective mirror sculptures installed on the outdoor terraces distort the surrounding environment and invite shifting perspectives.
Recent paintings and sculptures expand Kapoor’s exploration of the body
Beyond the monumental installations, the exhibition presents paintings and sculptures produced over the past decade. These works employ materials including silicone, resin, and pigment to create forms that evoke fragmented bodies and internal organs, extending Kapoor’s ongoing investigation into the psychological and physical dimensions of sculpture.
Furthermore, the exhibition considers how contemporary imagery and collective experience influence artistic expression. Throughout the galleries, Kapoor’s works continue to blur the boundaries between abstraction and figuration while inviting sustained engagement with perception, absence, and material transformation.
From beginning to end, Kapoor’s work draws on unease and surprise, as curator Ralph Rugoff notes, “illuminating surprising links between our experiences of the sublime and extreme abjection, the spiritual and the physical.”
The exhibition remains on view at the Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, London, through October 18.