Anish Kapoor was born in India to parents of Punjabi and Iraqi-Jewish heritage. He moved to London to study at the Hornsey College of Art (1973–77) and the Chelsea School of Art (1977–78).
In the experimentation with materials, simplicity of form, relevance of colour, perception, space and emptiness, Kapoor’s sculptures build on the traditions of minimalism. At the same time, many of his works readily stand in contrast to minimalist sculpture as seen in the references to his cultural background, metaphysical states and the use of specific materials to create illusion.
Kapoor exhibits extensively, including solo shows at Regen Projects, Los Angeles, USA (2020); Lisson Gallery, New York, USA (2019); CAFA Art Museum / Imperial Ancestral Temple, Beijing (2019); Lisson Gallery, London (2019 & 2017); CorpArtes, Santiago; Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires (2019); Galerie Klüser, Munich, Germany (2018); Serralves, Museu de Arte Contemorânea, Porto, Portugal (2018); Musée d’Art et Contemporain, Saint–Ètienne Mètropole, France (2017); Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia, Italy (2017); Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia, Italy (2016); Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Mexico City, Mexico (2016).
His work has been included in Iniva’s Emotional Learning Cards series, ‘What do you feel?’ and ‘How do we live well with others?’.
In 1991 Kapoor received the Turner Prize and in 2002 received the Unilever Commission for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. His notable public sculptures include Cloud Gate (2006) in Chicago’s Millennium Park; Sky Mirror, exhibited at the Rockefeller Center in New York City in 2006 and Kensington Gardens in London in 2010; Temenos, at Middlehaven, Middlesbrough; Leviathan, at the Grand Palais in Paris in 2011; and ArcelorMittal Orbit, commissioned as a permanent artwork for London’s Olympic Park and completed in 2012. In 2017 Kapoor designed the statuette for the 2018 Brit Awards.
Kapoor lives and works in London