Anish Kapoor is back at the Hayward Gallery for the first time in nearly 30 years, and the show is as close to a full sensory overload as London offers this summer. Anish Kapoor opens on 16 June and runs until 18 October 2026, taking over the entire Brutalist building on the Southbank — walls, floors, ceilings and outdoor terraces included.
The exhibition spans new and seminal work across five decades of practice. Three monumental new sculptures anchor the show, each consuming an entire section of the gallery. The first is a colossal inflated PVC membrane that fills a six-metre-high space, pressing the limits of what a room can hold. A second work conjures a dark mountainous form looming over a sprawling red landscape in the upper gallery. The third, Mount Moriah at the Gate of the Ghetto (2022), descends from the ceiling and hovers inches above the gallery floor.
Alongside these commissions, the exhibition features Kapoor’s Vantablack sculptures — objects coated in the light-absorbing nanotechnology so extreme it makes surfaces appear as pure void — plus flawless steel mirror works that warp and disorient, and the depthless “void” pieces that pull you in with a vertiginous tug. Visceral recent paintings and body-referencing sculptures round out a show that is equal parts philosophical and unsettling.
The exhibition is curated by Ralph Rugoff and forms a centrepiece of the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary programme. It also marks Rugoff’s final show as Director of the Hayward Gallery after 20 years in the role.
Tickets from £19. The Hayward Gallery is at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX. The nearest tube is Waterloo (Northern, Bakerloo, Jubilee and Waterloo & City lines), a short walk away; Embankment (District and Circle lines) is also within reach via Hungerford Bridge. Waterloo mainline station is equally close. Note that the venue does not accept cash. Book at southbankcentre.co.uk.
