This dialogue began in 1998, when Hayward Gallery presented Kapoor’s first major retrospective in the UK. Twenty-eight years later, his works once again occupy the gallery’s spaces and terraces, reshaping our perceptions of space and time, and our sense of presence within them.

The exhibition is curated by Ralph Rugoff, Artistic Director of Hayward Gallery and curator of the 58th Venice Biennale (2019). Conceived as a continuous journey, it offers a fresh perspective on Kapoor’s work in each space, gradually revealing how the pieces interact with the viewer.

Beyond the Object

For more than forty years, Anish Kapoor has explored how space changes human perception and how perception, in turn, changes space itself. His practice cannot be reduced to a single technique or material. From black voids to seemingly boundless mirrored surfaces, Kapoor’s works engage with what he calls the “space of the object”, prompting viewers to look more closely and reconsider how they perceive their surroundings.

Stone, steel, wax, silicone, resin, pigment and mirrored surfaces provide starting points for exploring more complex subjects: the limits of the visible, physical experience and states that resist rational explanation. Sometimes, what matters most lies beyond the surface of things.

Matter as Metaphor

At the heart of the new exhibition are three large-scale installations, each responding to the architecture of Hayward Gallery in its own way. A gigantic inflatable PVC membrane fills the first room, challenging viewers’ sense of scale and their own significance.

In the second new work, a dark, mountainous threshold rises against a red landscape in the upper gallery. The third key installation is Mount Moriah at the Gate of the Ghetto (2022). This monumental form appears to defy gravity, descending from the ceiling and hovering just a few centimetres above the floor. Its emotional power reflects Kapoor’s interest in the nature of the sublime, while its scale elicits an almost physical response.

“Working across a wide range of scales and boldly experimenting with materials, Kapoor takes viewers on a journey of perception that touches on existential questions and reveals unexpected connections between experiences of the sublime and extreme disgust, the spiritual and the physical,” Ralph Rugoff noted.

What Lies «Beyond»

A separate section of the exhibition explores optical illusions. Among the works are sculptures coated in Vantablack, a material so black that three-dimensional forms appear almost flat and space seems stripped of depth. On Hayward Gallery’s outdoor terraces, this experience continues with large-scale sculptures in mirror-polished steel, creating a sense of both discovery and disorientation.

The exhibition also features paintings and sculptures created over the past decade. Made from silicone, resin and pigment, they evoke the human body and its internal organs. These works elicit instinctive and psychological responses, inviting us to consider what it means to live in an age when images of violence have become part of everyday visual culture.

To Be Continued…

An illustrated catalogue has been published to accompany the exhibition, featuring contributions from psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva and art historians Nancy Spector and Sandhini Poddar, alongside an in-depth interview with curator Ralph Rugoff. A limited-edition giclée print signed by the artist also marks the occasion. One of Kapoor’s recent gouache drawings, The Dark (2026), revisits his iconic motif: the void as a soft, sensual presence shimmering with all the colours of the rainbow.

Exhibition Listing Information

Anish Kapoor 

16 Jun 2026 – 18 Oct 2026 

Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX 

Hayward Gallery opening hours:

Tue – Fri, 10am – 6pm 

Sat, 10am – 8pm 

Sun, 10am – 6pm