Anish Kapoor - Haywood Gallery 2026

I recently photographed Anish Kapoor’s major exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London, a landmark presentation spanning the gallery’s interior spaces and outdoor terraces.

Returning to the Hayward almost three decades after his first major UK survey there in 1998, Kapoor has created an exhibition that engages directly with the gallery’s distinctive Brutalist architecture. Sculptures occupy, interrupt and transform the spaces: highly polished mirrored surfaces distort both the architecture and the people moving through it, while intensely dark works appear to open up voids within the gallery itself.

The exhibition brings together works from across Kapoor’s career alongside major recent installations, paintings and sculptures. Throughout, material, scale, reflection and colour alter our perception of space – from objects that seem almost immaterial to monumental works in Kapoor’s characteristic deep red.

Photographing the exhibition was particularly interesting because the relationship between the artworks and the architecture is so important. Reflections, changing viewpoints and the movement of visitors constantly alter the experience of the work, while the raw concrete of the Hayward provides a powerful setting for Kapoor’s highly controlled surfaces, intense colour and extraordinary sense of depth.

Curated by Ralph Rugoff as his final exhibition as Director of the Hayward Gallery, the exhibition forms part of the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary programme and runs from 16 June to 18 October 2026.