{"id":395477,"date":"2026-01-28T18:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T18:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/395477\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T18:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T18:53:11","slug":"anish-kapoor-to-show-some-of-his-most-ambitious-projects-realised-or-not-in-venice-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/395477\/","title":{"rendered":"Anish Kapoor to show some of his most ambitious projects\u2014realised or not\u2014in Venice – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anish Kapoor is, as he emphasises, \u201cvery much an artist\u201d, but his next exhibition in Venice will focus on his architectural projects\u2014or, perhaps more accurately, his sculptural projects that have verged on the architectural in terms of scale. The earliest work dates back more than 40 years.<\/p>\n

Some of them, such as Cloud Gate\u00a0(2006) in Chicago and the recently opened Monte Sant\u2019Angelo\u00a0Metro Station in Naples have been realised; others have not. They exist only as models, and there will be around 100 of them on show at the Palazzo Manfrin, where Kapoor launched his foundation<\/a> in 2022. This is the second time the historical space will open to the public.<\/p>\n

Among Kapoor\u2019s most ambitious unrealised projects are plans for a work in outer space. \u201cIt\u2019s realistic in the sense that we\u2019re in serious discussion\u2014I can\u2019t tell you with who\u2014about doing something very ambitious out there, hopefully big enough to see from Earth. [It\u2019s] not just a token,\u201d Kapoor tells The Art Newspaper. It is not confirmed yet whether the model for this work will be unveiled in Venice.<\/p>\n

Whether such projects are realised or not is almost immaterial to Kapoor. His Venice show, which opens 5 May, is a chance to explore the more non-commercial side of his work. \u201cIt\u2019s about opening up my practice. It\u2019s important that it isn\u2019t restricted to what the market can consume. Yes, there\u2019s a side of my practice that is for sale. But throughout my career I\u2019ve always had all kinds of works\u2014things made out of wax and all sorts of things\u2014I\u2019ve hardly ever sold a single one of those, and in a way that\u2019s what keeps my practice alive. The real, or other, side of my practice has always been important.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Model of Flesh (2002)<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Anish Kapoor<\/p>\n

A mix of old and new works will go on show, including around six projects that have been realised. Among them is Descent into Limbo\u00a0(1992), which will be installed on the Cannaregio site permanently once the exhibition closes in August. At the Edge of the World\u00a0(1998), which already exists in two versions in red, has been remade for Venice in a \u201cvery sombre, dark, dark black\u201d. Kapoor elaborates: \u201cIt\u2019s a not-so-new paint that I\u2019ve been using. Not Vantablack<\/a> [a super-black coating developed by Surrey Nanosystems] but related to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there are several new works. One of them consists of a small room measuring less than six-meters cubed, filled with lumps and smears of paint. \u201cIt\u2019s an immersive painting,\u201d Kapoor says. \u201cYou can\u2019t enter it, of course, you just stand at the threshold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kapoor has been outspoken about his political views in the past. He was loudly critical<\/a> of Adriano Pedrosa\u2019s title of the 2024 Venice Biennale exhibition, Foreigners Everywhere, which the artist described as \u201cthe re-appropriation of fascist sloganism\u201d. Kapoor told The Art Newspaper\u00a0at the time that the title and theme of the Biennale demonstrated \u201can utter naivety of the real effects these words still bear on people\u2019s lives\u201d and that the choice to use it came \u201cfrom the perspective of a naively privileged white male curator\u201d.<\/p>\n

Today, Kapoor thinks the art world \u201cis in a very weird place\u201d when it comes to identity politics. \u201cWe seem to have been eclipsed somewhat by [the importance of] ethnic origin, and we\u2019ve got to be rather careful about that, because what matters in the end is not where [art] comes from. What matters in the end is how it opens up our visual, emotional language. It\u2019s very difficult. Obviously [this is] something that has been necessary, but I hope we\u2019re at a point now where we can move beyond [identity] and return to connoisseurship and open the idea of what connoisseurship is\u2014sense of multi various poetic language.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, what does Kapoor make of the Venice Biennale\u2019s early beginnings, which were\u2014and still continue to be\u2014linked to ideas of Western views of nationalism? \u201cNationalism in a global, post-national world is in crisis,\u201d he says. \u201cBut look where that has led us, to an extreme right-wing, nasty reiteration of ultra-nationalism. The Biennale was, of course, set up along so-called nationalistic lines, but that doesn\u2019t mean that\u2019s how we have to function.\u201d He notes how, when he represented Britain at the Biennial in 1990, he was an Indian national. \u201cI did not have a British passport. And what mattered at the time, and I hope still does, was that I was an artist working in Britain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking forward, Kapoor has a raft of exhibitions on his slate including a show dedicated to paintings at Scad Museum of Art, Savannah; an exhibition of steel sculptures at Lisson Gallery in New York; and a major show at the Hayward Gallery, which opens in June and will feature all new works. He last exhibited at the London institution almost 30 years ago, making him one of only two artists, alongside Bridget Riley, to have shown there twice. \u201cThe