The last time Anish Kapoor filled the Hayward Gallery was 1998. The gap of nearly thirty years is itself a curatorial statement: this is not a routine institutional show. Ralph Rugoff has organised the survey as his final exhibition as Hayward director, after two decades in the role.
Kapoor occupies the entire building. Inflatable structures press against the six-metre-high walls and descend from the ceiling. Mirror sculptures warp and disorient spatial perception in ways that photographs reduce to novelty. The most significant works are coated in Vantablack - the nanotechnology that absorbs up to 99.96% of visible light, the exclusive artistic rights to which Kapoor purchased in 2016. A three-dimensional object coated in Vantablack reads as a flat black void. No screen renders this accurately. It requires physical presence.
The show opens 16 June and runs to 18 October 2026, forming part of the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary programme.
£22 - southbankcentre.co.uk