Anish Kapoor
One of the most influential sculptors of his generation, Anish Kapoor was born in Bombay in 1954. He moved to London in the 1970's to study art at the Hornsey College of Art and later at the Chelsea School of Art in London, where he earned his master's degree. He lives and works in London, UK.
A sculptural innovator, Kapoor is particularly known for his unexpected use of terrene materials such as limestone, granite, dirt, concrete, and colorful pigment, along with his ability to create engaging environments that inspire a meditative, poetic experience. Kapoor fashions largely monochromatic and deceptively simple works that challenge ideas of rationality and perception through the interplay of curvilinear forms, reflective surfaces, and size. His works often serve as evocative statements of perception, spirituality, the body, the mind, as well as yin-and-yang dualities inherent in nature.
Kapoor's notable public sculptures include Cloud Gate 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. Current solo exhibitions include Houghton Hall, Norfolk, UK (2020). Upcoming solo exhibitions include Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany (2020). Recent solo exhibitions include 'Surge' at Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2019); Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum and Imperial Ancestral Temple, Beijing, China (2019); CorpArtes, Santiago, Chile (2019); Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery, London, UK (2019); Serralves Museum, Porto, Portugal (2018); 'Descension'' at Public Art Fund, Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 1, New York, NY, USA (2017); Parque de la Memoria, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2017); MAST Foundation, Bologna, Italy (2017); Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Mexico City, Mexico (2016); Couvent de la Tourette, Eveux, France (2015); Château de Versailles, Versailles, France (2015) and The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Moscow, Russia (2015). He represented Britain at the 44th Venice Biennale in 1990 with Void Field (1989), for which he was awarded the Premio Duemila for Best Young Artist. Kapoor won the Turner Prize in 1991 and has honorary fellowships from the University of Wolverhampton, UK (1999), the Royal Institute of British Architecture, London, UK (2001) and an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford, UK (2014). Anish Kapoor was awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2003 and a Knighthood in 2013 for services to visual arts.
