Born in India and now based in London, Kapoor emerged onto the international stage in the early 1980s as one of a number of artists in Britain whose innovative new techniques reestablished sculpture as a vital means of artistic expression. An important interlocutor between Eastern and Western aesthetic traditions, Kapoor’s work engages both the traditional forms and material concerns of Minimalism while simultaneously embracing themes of Indian cosmology and spiritual transcendence. This integration of formal and philosophical themes has allowed Kapoor to explore monumental sculptural ideas without ever losing the intimacy and physical immediacy of the viewer. This intimacy allows Kapoor to explore the sublime, a metaphysical ideal that the artist, unique among his peers, has been able to translate into a contemporary post-modern idiom.
This exhibition, his second solo show with Kukje Gallery, is comprised of ten large-scale sculptures made from a diverse variety of materials, including polished stainless steel, acrylic, resin and dyed Vaseline. Together, these works provide a dynamic overview of the artist’s carefully-cultivated formal vocabulary and continue his long-standing practice of using new and unorthodox technologies to create stunningly evocative objects.
Kapoor was born in 1954, Bombay, India, and emigrated to England in 1972 where he studied sculpture at the Chelsea School of Art Design. He represented Britain in the Venice Biennale in 1990, winning the Premio Duemila. Kapoor was also awarded The Turner Prize, Britain’s most prestigious art award, in 1991. He has had solo exhibitions in galleries and museums worldwide, including the Tate Modern (London), Kunsthalle Basel (Switzerland), and the Reina Sofia (Madrid). His work can be found in many prominent public collections, notably the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Tate Modern (London), Fondazione Prada (Milan), and the Guggenheim (Bilbao).