Installation view of Anish Kapoor, 2026. Photo: Dave Morgan. Courtesy of the Hayward Gallery and the artist. © Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, DACS, 2026.
If you’re at all interested in art in London, you’re likely well aware that a momentous exhibition recently landed in the city. Almost 30 years after his first major UK survey at the Hayward Gallery, Anish Kapoor has returned with an immense display. He’s transformed the space into an immersive world full of towering installations and sculpture. Pieces push and pull at the walls, ceiling, and floor, leaning towards, away from, and around the viewers. And for one night only, Londoners can experience the show in an all-new (late-night) light.
This week, the Hayward Gallery is opening its doors late into the night for a special ticketed viewing of the exhibition. This will feature unique musical performances by local artists, special activations, and a chance to fully immerse yourself in Kapoor’s pieces.
Running from 6:30-10pm on August 13, the late-night exhibition viewing will take place across both the Upper and Lower Galleries. As you roam around, you’ll encounter live musical performances that draw from, react to, and complement the artworks.
Installation view of Anish Kapoor, 2026. Photo: Dave Morgan. Courtesy of the Hayward Gallery and the artist. © Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, DACS, 2026.
And to ensure you make the most of it, we’ve put together a guide for the night. Want to know more about the artworks? About the artist? About the performers? Or just want to be given the best route to experience the pieces? We’ve got you covered below…
Anish Kapoor at the Hayward Gallery
The exhibition features a mixture of some of Kapoor’s already iconic artworks, alongside new pieces. These range across sculptures and paintings, but uniting them all is a trickery or questioning of perception, and a sense of mystery and intrigue. These include some of the artist’s ‘void’ works and sculptures coated with Vantablack. Others create tortured bodies from resin, silicon, pigment, and our own mind’s interpretations. The pieces invite us to “look twice and question how we experience our environment.”
Said Anish Kapoor:
“I am thrilled to be making an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery with Ralph Rugoff and to be returning to the Hayward after 28 years. The Southbank Centre has over the last 75 Years been central to London’s cultural life and I am honoured to make an exhibition to celebrate this anniversary.”
Installation view of Anish Kapoor, 2026. Photo: Dave Morgan. Courtesy of the Hayward Gallery and the artist. © Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, DACS, 2026.
Without a doubt the highlights of the exhibition are three enormous pieces that you’ll find filling entire sections of the gallery. One is a new work that features an inflated PVC membrane that stretches six metres high to touch the ceiling of the space. The second – another new work – is a mountainous red landscape that looms overhead, reaching towards the viewer. And the third is Kapoor’s seminal Mount Moriah at the Gate of the Ghetto (2022). This immense piece hangs from the ceiling, and somehow manages to hover just inches above the floor.
Ralph Rugoff, Curator of Anish Kapoor, said:
“Utilising a wide range of scales and adventurously experimenting with different materials, Kapoor takes us on an exhilarating perceptual journey that plumbs existential questions, illuminating surprising links between our experiences of the sublime and extreme abjection, the spiritual and the physical.”
Performers at the Anish Kapoor Hayward Gallery Lates
As you wander around, you’ll encounter live performances from two London-based musicians, chosen in collaboration by Secret London and futuretense – the Southbank Centre’s twice-monthly free gig programme which shares the sounds of the future, providing a platform for up-and-coming British and international musicians. Within the Anish Kapoor exhibition space, FREDDY FORBIDDEN will be performing, while VERA SACRA will perform throughout the night in the HENI Project Space.
Both performances have been inspired by Kapoor’s work, drawing from them, responding to them, and contrasting them. (Don’t worry though, they’ll both be performing regularly, so you’ll get a chance to see them both.)
Installation view of Anish Kapoor, Ha Makom (2026). Photo: Dave Morgan. Courtesy of the Hayward Gallery and the artist. © Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, DACS, 2026.
Hailing from East London, FREDDY FORBIDDEN is bringing his unique new take on alternative music – “AFROCORE” – to the rooms of the Anish Kapoor exhibition. He’ll be performing three 15-minute sets that surround the art with “a fusion of grime, punk, indie rock, bedroom pop, and West African grooves.”
Said FREDDY FORBIDDEN on the connection between their works:
“Anish Kapoor and my work meet at the intersection of esoteric wisdom and exploration into the unknown of metaphysics. I see myself as a sonic-philosopher conveying freedom in the form of sound and performance and a reoccurring topic I feel I see in both of our works seems to be this reverence to the natural law of duality”.
Credit: FREDDY FORBIDDEN
In contrast to FREDDY FORBIDDEN, VERA SACRA’s music is a mix of experimental electronic sounds, ambient worlds, and delicate songwriting. She’ll be performing two 25-minute sets in the HENI Project Space. The dreamlike world of her music features improvisation, cello, and deconstructed club sounds to make up something otherworldly and unique.
As the songwriting alias of Emily Marks, VERA SACRA has previously created pieces that experiment with and explore form, shape, and texture. Most recently, her piece ‘for Organ and Cave’ was performed at London’s Union Chapel. The piece explored “the archaeoacoustics of caves and spirituality, drawing sonic-spatial similarities between churches and caves and the ways in which both spaces have cultivated connections to the feeling of something beyond the everyday.”
A guide to the evening
Visitors are encouraged to begin their visit in the main gallery space. FREDDY FORBIDDEN’s sets are timed to begin shortly after each wave of visitors arrives. For the optimal experience, be sure to move from the main room into galleries 2 and 3, successively, before moving upstairs to see more. Hayward’s Visitor Assistants will be on hand to point you in the right direction and guide you to the location of FREDDY’s performances.
Upstairs, again it’s best to move through the galleries in order, checking out galleries 4 and 5. But along the way, be sure to step out onto the outdoor terrace areas to explore some impressive sculptural pieces. And while you’re up there, be sure to enjoy a free cocktail courtesy of Campari.
Installation view of Anish Kapoor, Tsunami (2025). Photo: Dave Morgan. Courtesy of the Hayward Gallery and the artist. © Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, DACS, 2026.
It’s then off to the HENI Project Space, where you can take in one of two performances by VERA SACRA, to round off the evening.
On the terrace, you can check out the Campari Bar, where a free Campari cocktail awaits, redeemable with a physical token. There will also be a range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks on offer throughout the evening from the Hayward Gallery cafe.
📍 Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX.
🚇 The nearest station is Waterloo.
🖼️ The Anish Kapoor exhibition is running from June 16 – October 18, 2026.