ANISH KAPOOR

Kukje Gallery is proud to present an exhibition of recent works by the internationally renowned artist, Anish Kapoor from August 31st to October 30th. Titled Gathering Clouds, the exhibition will showcase sculptures that reflect his mastery of formal investigation and material science. This will be his third exhibition at the gallery following previous shows in 2003 and 2008. Spanning two gallery spaces, K1 and K3, the exhibit will include two unique yet related series that together further cement his reputation as a fearless interlocutor of materials and conceptual rigor. The new works showcase how Kapoor’s work explores symbolic forms and advanced engineering along with an ongoing investigation of how different materials impact reflection and distortion.

The first and primary grouping of works is a series of his new and widely praised “twist” sculptures. Fabricated from stainless steel, these powerful works demand attention as they exhibit how force applied to mass can be captured as a manifestation of arrested movement. The artist has referred to similar bodies of work as Non- Objects (2013 -14), referring to the in-between state where the internal geometry of a thing and its surface combine to interrupt the object’s legibility, conspiring in its own disappearance. The twists resemble both symbols and bodies in space, evoking ancient mathematical axioms or manifestation of engineering; machined from solid blocks of steel, they shape an inchoate mass of metal into powerful but precise forms that twist in an unspecified number of degrees, without ever amounting to a full 90 degree turn. For the most part Kapoor’s twists resemble abstract volume as personified in geometry or the movement famously embodied in Baroque allegory. Kapoor taps into the same effect that Baroque architects achieved in their buildings by freezing radical movement and oblique planes.

These works seem to be held in a kind of suspended animation, their volume offset by the lightness and tensile fragility of their polished surface. Flawless, they nevertheless retain a glimmer of instability, conveying to the viewer an intimacy and physicality that is inexhaustible. Approximately 60 centimeters in height, the twelve twists will be displayed on pedestals in K1 while the three larger twists, measuring 2.5 meters, rest directly on the floor in K3. Alternating on these two levels, the twists fill their respective galleries, creating a kind of hallowed hall wherein one walks and is flanked by these silent but activated bodies.

In addition to the twists, Kapoor will show the work Gathering Clouds. Titled sequentially I to IV, it consists of wall-mounted and pigment-coated fiberglass discs—a concave form often explored by the artist such as in his celebrated work Sky Mirror—that evoke a mysterious, unfathomable darkness. These powerful and poetic shapes resist easy interpretation, alternating the focus on surface and depth, exploring the emotional contours of whoever is looking at them. Kapoor has utilized intense monochromatic hues in many of his works ranging from L’origine du monde (2004) to the monumental Leviathan (2011). By skillfully balancing surfaces with expertly manipulated geometrical forms, the artist is able to transform the space, thereby, inducing a physical and emotional experience in the viewer.

Anish Kapoor was born in 1954, Mumbai, India, and travelled to England in 1972 where he studied sculpture at Hornsey College of Art and then Chelsea College of Arts. Anish Kapoor represented Britain in the 44th Venice Biennale in 1990, winning the Premio Duemila. Kapoor was also awarded the Turner Prize, Britain’s most prestigious art award, in 1991. His seminal projects include large site-specific installations at the garden of the Palace of Versailles (2015), Cloud Gate (2004) at Millennium Park in Chicago and Marsyas (2002) at the Tate Modern in London. Kapoor’s work can be found in many prominent public collections, notably the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Modern in London, Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul, Fondazione Prada in Milan, and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.