Anish Kapoor is preparing for a major career-spanning exhibition at London's Hayward Gallery, which opens this week. The 72-year-old artist's 3,100 sq metre studio complex in south London is bustling with activity as he and his team of 23 staff—including studio assistants, office workers, and stone masons—finalize monumental new works such as 'Ha Makom,' a 31-part structure, and 'Ancestor,' a meteorite-like form. The show marks Kapoor's return to the Hayward, which first gave him a major UK solo exhibition in 1998, and is curated by outgoing director Ralph Rugoff, who gifted Kapoor a concrete cylinder drilled from the gallery floor as a birthday token.
This exhibition matters because it reaffirms Kapoor's status as one of Britain's most internationally celebrated sculptors, known for pushing the boundaries of scale and material—from pigment-covered geometric works in the 1980s to massive public installations like 'Leviathan' (2011) and the cannon-fired red wax piece at the Royal Academy (2009). The show also highlights the enduring collaboration between Kapoor and the Hayward Gallery, a key institution in the UK's contemporary art landscape, and underscores the artist's continued ambition to create immersive, challenging experiences for audiences.