Renowned British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor has returned to London’s Hayward Gallery with a major new exhibition nearly three decades after his first landmark show at the venue, describing the experience as “coming home.”
The exhibition, featuring monumental installations, immersive void works and vivid red sculptures, explores themes of fear, beauty, consciousness and the relationship between objects and emptiness.
Speaking during a preview of the exhibition on Monday, Kapoor reflected on revisiting the iconic gallery space after 28 years.
“It’s a coming home, in many ways,” Kapoor said. “What I’ve tried to do is take on what I did before and take it to some other place. It is a very, very different show than the first one I made here.”
Among the highlights of the exhibition is “Ha Makom”, a massive red installation Kapoor described as existing somewhere “between painting and sculpture.” The work features a glowing crimson surface with a dark void-like opening that appears to pull viewers inward.
“I’m interested in the quality of this red,” Kapoor explained. “It’s bright, it glows. I hope it takes you somewhere else.”
Red dominates much of the exhibition, a colour Kapoor says represents both celebration and terror.
“Red is at one level a colour of celebration, but it’s also a colour of deep darkness, of terror, of fear,” he said. “The sublime is wonder and fear together.”
The exhibition also includes large-scale works such as “All of Nothing”, an enormous inflatable installation that transforms the gallery’s interior space. Kapoor described the work as both technically challenging and risky to execute.
“With a big project like this one, there’s no chance to ponder anything,” he said. “It’s a technical nightmare, but that’s the job.”
Several of Kapoor’s signature “void works” also feature prominently in the exhibition, including “Descent into Limbo”, revisiting the artist’s long-standing fascination with emptiness, perception and metaphysical questions.
“My contention is that it takes the object beyond being,” Kapoor said. “What is consciousness? Where do we go after we die? Perhaps it is the role of art to ponder these questions.”
Despite the philosophical undertones of the exhibition, Kapoor insisted that the works are not designed to deliver a single message.
“It’s about the interaction between the viewer and the object,” he said. “I hope beauty, wonder, fear — even ‘I hate it’ — it’s all good.”
The exhibition showcases several new works from 2024 to 2026 alongside earlier installations, offering visitors a sweeping journey through Kapoor’s evolving artistic vision.
