From black holes to boundless mirrors, Anish Kapoor (b. 1954) is renowned for creating spectacular sculptures and paintings that spark a sense of awe. This summer, his work returns to the Hayward Gallery in London as the centrepiece of the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary programme. It’s a fitting comeback: in 1998, the space was the first public gallery to host a major survey of Kapoor. This latest show includes both new and seminal pieces, and it spans across the entire gallery – both inside and out. At its heart are three monumental works, each filling an entire section of the space.
Kapoor was born in Mumbai and, since winning the Turner Prize in 1991, has become recognised as one of today’s leading contemporary artists. His pieces – which often play with scale, reflection and ideas of “the void” – are permanently exhibited in some of the most important international collections and museums in the world. Arguably, Kapoor’s most famous public work is Cloud Gate (2004), a stainless-steel sculpture located in Chicago’s Millennium Park and affectionately known worldwide as “The Bean.”
Hayward Gallery’s audiences must first enter a room which is completely transformed by a colossal and imposing new work: All of Nothing (2026), an inflated PVC membrane that fills the six-metre-high space. You can almost hear it ooze and squelch as it forces its way through the walls. Elsewhere, Mount Moriah at the Gate of the Ghetto (2022) defies gravity as it descends from the ceiling, hovering inches above the floor. These works are overwhelming in size, tapping into Kapoor’s fascination with the sublime. The whole exhibition is characterised by both wonder and abject fear; this is a place where the walls really do seem to close in. Its emotional intensity is heightened by the unavoidable presence of the colour red, whose symbolism is as intense – evoking immediate associations with blood and danger, but also love and passion.
Curator Ralph Rugoff makes sure to foreground Kapoor’s signature illusions. There are several seemingly depthless “void” works and sculptures coated with Vantablack: a light-absorbing nanotechnology that makes three-dimensional forms appear entirely flat when seen head-on. It’s impossible not to be tempted to step into the hole in the ground, or to reach out to see if your arm will be swallowed by the walls. Elsewhere, large-scale mirrored steel sculptures, placed on the outdoor terraces, further immerse and disorientate visitors. Their reflections – and those of the city around them – are inverted and warped.
Lastly, the exhibition moves way from polished surfaces towards more visceral paintings and sculptures, produced over the past decade. Created using silicone, resin and pigment, these intense works conjure splayed-open bodies and internal organs. This section of the display is immediately confronting and challenging – asking us to reflect on what it means to exist in an age where violent images are pervasive. Provocation – of thought, feeling and memory – is the underlying theme of the show. As Rugoff explains: “Utilising a wide range of scales and adventurously experimenting with different materials, Kapoor takes us on an exhilarating perceptual journey that plumbs existential questions, illuminating surprising links between our experiences of the sublime and extreme abjection, the spiritual and the physical.”
Anish Kapoor is at Hayward Gallery, London, until 18 October.
Words: Eleanor Sutherland
Image Credits:
1. Installation view of Anish Kapoor, Tsunami (2025). Photo: Dave Morgan. Courtesy of the Hayward Gallery and the artist. © Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, DACS, 2026.
2. Installation view of Anish Kapoor, All of Nothing (2026). Photo: Dave Morgan. Courtesy of the Hayward Gallery and the artist. © Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, DACS, 2026.
3. Non-Object Black, 2018-2021 Background: Vertical Abys, 2022; Untitled, 2022 Photograph: Attilio Maranzano ©Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, DACS, 2026
4. Installation view of Anish Kapoor, All of Nothing (2026). Photo: Dave Morgan. Courtesy of the Hayward Gallery and the artist. © Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, DACS, 2026.
5. Installation view of Anish Kapoor, Cloak (2026). Photo: Dave Morgan. Courtesy of the Hayward Gallery and the artist. © Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, DACS, 2026.
