A Master at Work: Anish Kapoor in London

Large (and Small) Scale

The first encounter with this wide-spanning exhibition is sure to cause surprise, if not a chuckle. A huge six-metre-high PVC balloon welcomes you as you step into the gallery. Can you go around it? No. Is it hiding something? Who knows. It’s just quintessentially Kapoor–big, bold, and unapologetically there.

Throughout his illustrious career, Anish Kapoor has challenged audiences with his large-scale designs–some universally acclaimed, others viscerally hated, but all widely talked about. This exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London’s Southbank Centre is no different. It doesn’t shy away from showing Kapoor’s art at its rawest. No matter how you feel about it or what it triggers in you, it’s guaranteed not to leave you indifferent.

After the balloon surprise in the first room (All of Nothing is the very apt name), the exhibition becomes much more subdued in scale and tone. The next room is dotted with smaller artworks painted with Vantablack. This is a deep type of black, created via nanotechnology, which absorbs over 99.9% of light. In doing so, it creates the ultimate optical illusion. Your brain doesn’t quite know what to make of them. Are they flat, or is there a shape in there? Are they on the wall or floating off it? In their simplicity, they are hugely effective. They are also proof that Kapoor, often heralded as the master of large-scale installations, can be just as ingenious and captivating with smaller pieces.

Blood Red

The upper rooms of the exhibition show a more guttural side to Kapoor’s art. Red, a deep scarlet red, is a firm favourite. In large part, it is for the inherently emotional qualities of the color. We associate red with passion, intrigue, emotions, and danger. Qualities that are also clearly present in Kapoor’s art. The imposing Ha Makom, a sprawling red mountain with a mysterious opening at its top, is an example of Kapoor’s ability to use sheer size to draw the audience in and play with their psyche.

The smaller installations are no less punchy. There are monstrous forms protruding off the walls, contained only by a stretched transparent plastic too close to breaking point for comfort. It’s something straight off a horror movie. Hugely impactful are also some of Kapoor’s more recent sculptures: piles of bloodied parts which feel very human whilst being nothing of the sort. As the audience walks around them and admires their gory details, the mind goes to a world in which violence and explicit details are normalised and, perhaps, fail to sway us as they ought to.

In the centre of it all is what it means to be human. Kapoor forces viewers to confront their fears, feelings, and emotions or, at the very least, be pushed out of their comfort zone. In a mix of curiosity and repulsion, amazement and introspection, this is an exhibition that surely packs a punch. It clearly shows the sheer size (in more than one sense) of Kapoor’s vision, mastery, and achievement. Not that there was any doubt.

Anish Kapoor is at the Hayward Gallery, London, UK, until October 18, 2026.