Anish Kapoor, the internationally renowned sculptor, is preparing for a major exhibition at London’s Hayward Gallery later this month, showcasing a range of his characteristic works—from colossal steel installations to sculptures coated in the deepest black. At 72, Kapoor remains an influential figure in contemporary art, blending theatricality with reflections on identity, mythology, and materiality.

Born in Mumbai in 1954 to a Hindu father and an Iraqi Jewish mother, Kapoor was educated at the Doon School before moving to the United Kingdom in 1973 to study art. He has resisted being categorized solely as an Indian artist, emphasizing the complexity of his own multicultural background. Married to a Muslim woman and a practicing Buddhist, Kapoor rejects what he describes as “politically correct” identity labels in art, maintaining that artists invent their own creative spaces rather than merely reflecting their cultural origins.

Kapoor’s current exhibition will feature “Mount Moriah at the Gate of the Ghetto” (2022), an inverted mountain installation hanging from the gallery ceiling. The piece references a biblical site where, according to tradition, Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac. Kapoor describes this concept of a “sacrificial moment of place” as central to his artistic exploration of the “psychic job” of the artist. The installation originally debuted at the Palazzo Manfrin in Venice, a building Kapoor acquired in 2018 situated near the historic Jewish Ghetto.

His earlier works include the 2002 “Marsyas” installation at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, a massive 150-meter-long blood-red sculpture made of PVC membrane, and “Descent into Limbo” (1992), which creates an illusion of a deep void on the gallery floor. Kapoor’s fascination with scale, illusion, and optical transformation has sometimes drawn both acclaim and critique for its spectacle. His ArcelorMittal Orbit tower in London, wrapped by Carsten Höller’s 178-meter slide, was met with mixed reactions, though some praised it as a bold architectural collaboration.

Kapoor also gained attention through his exclusive use of Vantablack, a material that absorbs almost all visible light, making sculptures appear as voids or portals. While Kapoor has described these as gateways to the “fourth dimension,” opinions differ on whether this represents a groundbreaking artistic experience or a visual curiosity. The artist’s iconic stainless-steel “Cloud Gate” sculpture in Chicago, popularly known as “The Bean,” exemplifies his engagement with reflective surfaces, though its popularity as a selfie backdrop highlights a broader trend of audience interaction overshadowing traditional art viewing.

Kapoor has voiced concern over the commercialization of art and its transformation into a commodity, acknowledging his own position within this system. While some of his works fetch high prices at auctions, he distinguishes between pieces created for market sale and those driven by more experimental intentions, suggesting the former supports the latter.

The upcoming exhibition will also display pieces such as “Ritual Expiation I–III,” sculptures resembling visceral assemblages of limbs and organs rendered in silicone and painted with Kapoor’s favored Alizarin crimson. These works evoke themes of sacrifice, mortality, and primordial ritual, embodying Kapoor’s ongoing inquiry into existential questions about life, death, and origin.

Throughout the interview, Kapoor reflects on the transformative act of creation, likening it to “archaic alchemy” that moves beyond meaning to evoke a space between significance and mystery. His work continues to challenge and engage viewers, underpinned by a restless creative spirit that embraces complexity over simple categorization.