Some exhibitions impress. Some linger long in the memory. Anish Kapoor’s return to the Hayward Gallery belongs a more elusive category: the kind of exhibition that leaves you changed even as you view it.

Kapoor, the much-lauded British-Indian sculptor, spares no expense in providing another stunning artistic experience to visitors of The Hayward Gallery this summer. His striking artistic endeavour does not so much occupy the entire gallery as it does seep and pop off every available surface, unfolding as a sequence of encounters that provide windows into how Kapoor considers our existence in the world around us.

Organised into four rooms, each presents a different facet of Kapoor’s long-standing fascination with perception, scale, matter and human consciousness. The first focuses on threshold spaces linking different states of being, the second spotlighting depthless voids and non-objects, the third centering ritual sacrifice and the the darker aspects of the human experience, while the fourth explores the mystery and magic of scale.

What emerges is not simply a journey through his recent creative endeavours, but an invitation to us to explore a universe that is deeply physical, often painful, but perhaps above all, profoundly mysterious.

Across all four rooms, one of the most striking aspects is Kapoor’s recurring use of red. Throughout the galleries, the colour continually transforms, between blood, ritual, sacrifice and vitality. It becomes less a shade than a connective force between all the rooms, a reminder of life’s visceral reality.

One of the most awe-inspiring pieces, Ha Makom, a piece inspired by Uluru and other significant rock formations, is a gigantic red scuplture that looks anything but. Part sprawling coral formation, part natural wonder of the world, it feels almost authentically geological in origin. Were it not for the stark red pigments that belie its contemporary nature, one could easily imagine Kapoor transplanting it from some remote desert at the edge of the known world.

In the name of space, the second room’s utilisation of Vantablack, a substance created with nanotechnology that absorbs up to 99% of visible light. The result is an unsettling sense of looking into spaces that should not exist, an absolute mind-bending experience that feels like peering beyond ordinary perception or sensory experience, a reminder of the joy to be found in encountering the unknown.

Across all the rooms, tactility and how we relate to space come to the fore, his work reminding us that when it comes to art, the relationship between creativity and existence itself is profound when we are pulled out of the screens we all possess and are thrust in the unexpected and unique nature of the tangible. Walking up to any of these pieces highlights every striation, every intentional curve, or stretch of silicone or PVC. These are pieces that could only exist by the ambition and passion of the mind, made real by the tools and hands that put them together.

The exhibition also extends beyond the gallery walls via two outdoor sculptures. I was fortunate enough to encounter them on a bright, sunny day, their reflective surfaces capturing fragments of sky, architecture and passing visitors. It is perhaps fascinating to consider how differently they might behave beneath London’s grey skies and rain, as is likely to occur at some point in The Big Smoke.

The success of Kapoor’s exhibition lies in its ability to engage the senses and push the mind into the unexpected, where on multiple levels we are being asked to consider our very existence. He asks us to consider blood and nature, the flesh and the void, the way we move in space and the incomprehensible vastness beyond what is known. Kapoor does not wish to offer us answers, only suggests that we consider these questions in the first place.

The Hayward Gallery has hosted many memorable exhibitions, but Anish Kapoor feels like one of its very best. It is a powerful testament to the the enduring ability of art to reconnect us with ourselves while reminding us how small we are within a world whose full dimensions we will never truly comprehend. By creating spaces in which wonder, uncertainty and awe can exist in full glory, Kapoor reminds us of the value of art: that such creativity is not a luxury but one of the defining conditions of our existence.

Anish Kapoor can be seen at the Hayward Gallery and runs from 16 June to 18 October 2026. More information can be found via the Southbank Centre website: Southbank Centre – Anish Kapoor Exhibition.