A sculpture shot at Kyiv

Anish Kapoor is one of the most influential artists of his generation. Born in Indian Mumbai he moved to Great Britain at the age of 18 and has been living and working in London for the past 40 years. Kapoor considers his creative work to be related to metaphysical opposites: presence and absence, existence and nonexistence, available place and its absence, things one can feel by touch and things one cannot feel. Due to complementary play of shape and light, the artist aspires at provoking elevated feelings by touching the basic physical and psychological human emotions.

Except for numerous solo exhibits, the artist has created grandiose installations for the Turbine Hall at the London-based Tate Modern Gallery within the framework of the “Unilever” series, and for the Paris Grand Palais within the project “Monument-2011.” His sculptures for the public space, including the mirror Cloud Gate in Chicago Millennium Park, the 10-meter Sky Mirror, installed in New York Rockefeller Center in 2006 and in London’s Kensington Park in 2010, immediately gained a cult status. Besides, in 2010 English Middlesboro unveiled the sculpture Temenos, the first one in the series of gigantic works planned to be installed in the Tees River valley. The great composer Arvo Part, inspired by his colossal abstract sculpture Marsyas, created Lamentate (2003), a play for piano and orchestra. The tower Orbit designed by Kapoor will be unveiled in May 2012 during the Olympic Games in London. The Orbit has already become as symbolic for the British capital as the Eiffel Tower for Paris.

Kapoor studied at Hornsey College of Art and Chelsea School of Art. He gained international recognition after presenting Great Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1990 where he was awarded Premio Duemila. The next year the artist was awarded the Turner Prize. These awards have boosted his career and he has become one of the most influential artists of nowadays. In 2011 Kapoor became the laureate of Praemium Imperiale, a global art prize awarded by Japanese Art Association, in sculpture.

PinchukArtCentre presents Kapoor’s works of metal and concrete, models and drawings of his architectural and monumental works as well as his installation Shooting into the Corner, a gun shooting red wax into the wall. This exhibit can be considered one of the most successful in the whole history of PinchukArtCentre.

Read more about the exhibit and an interview with Anish Kapoor in the upcoming issues of The Day.