Anish Kapoor’s Hayward Exhibition Enters Its Final Week

With the show closing on 18 October, Southbank Centre warns that sold-out online slots will have no additional tickets at the door.

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. · Exhibition

The closing date changes the practical question

Anish Kapoor’s exhibition at the Hayward Gallery closes on Sunday 18 October 2026. For visitors planning a final-week trip, the most useful update is Southbank Centre’s notice of 8 October: it does not reserve tickets for walk-up sales. If a date or time slot has sold out online, there will be no extra allocation at the door.

The notice anticipates heavy weekend demand but does not establish that every remaining session is sold out. Availability needs checking in the official booking system. Active Southbank Centre members are treated separately: the institution says they can enter without pre-booking, including during otherwise sold-out slots, by presenting their membership card.

Installation view of Anish Kapoor, All of Nothing (2026). Photo: Dave Morgan. Courtesy of the Hayward Gallery and the artist. © Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, DACS, 2026. · Exhibition

The building becomes part of the work

The exhibition occupies the Hayward’s entire gallery building, bringing together steel mirrors, Vantablack-coated objects, voids and recent paintings and sculptures. Southbank Centre also identifies two monumental new installations in red. The range makes the architectural setting an active part of how the work is encountered.

Installation view of Anish Kapoor, 2026. Photo: Dave Morgan. Courtesy of the Hayward Gallery and the artist. © Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, DACS, 2026. · Exhibition

A second view of All of Nothing shows how its red forms occupy the spaces between the building’s concrete columns.

Installation view of Anish Kapoor, All of Nothing (2026). Photo: Dave Morgan. Courtesy of the Hayward Gallery and the artist. © Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, DACS, 2026. · Exhibition

The relationship is more involved than fitting large objects into large rooms. A reflective surface can return a distorted version of the room and the visitor; a dark form can make depth difficult to read. In either case, the boundary of the object becomes inseparable from the conditions around it.

Installation view of Anish Kapoor, Cloak (2026). Photo: Dave Morgan. Courtesy of the Hayward Gallery and the artist. © Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, DACS, 2026. · Exhibition

A material can complicate what the eye reports

Lisson Gallery’s records for the Hayward presentation identify All of Nothing, dated 2026, as a PVC work with variable dimensions. The gallery lists Tsunami III, from 2025, in stainless steel, measuring six metres across. These specifications provide a useful material counterpoint to the exhibition’s emphasis on perceptual uncertainty.

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. · Exhibition

The objects remain fabricated things with measurable dimensions, even when their effects make those dimensions difficult to grasp. Kapoor’s practice draws energy from that gap. A visitor can know what a work is made of without being able to reconcile that knowledge immediately with the visual experience it produces.

Installation view of Anish Kapoor, Untitled (2026). Photo: Dave Morgan. Courtesy of the Hayward Gallery and the artist. © Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, DACS, 2026. · Exhibition

The wider installation view places the dark forms among neighbouring works, returning attention to the gallery floor and walls.

Installation view of Anish Kapoor, 2026. Photo: Dave Morgan. Courtesy of the Hayward Gallery and the artist. © Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, DACS, 2026. · Exhibition

A closing show and a curatorial transition

Southbank Centre identifies the exhibition as Ralph Rugoff’s final show as Hayward director after twenty years in the role. It also forms part of the institution’s seventy-fifth-anniversary programme. Those circumstances give the final week a significance beyond the normal end of an exhibition run.

Installation view of Anish Kapoor, 2026. Photo: Dave Morgan. Courtesy of the Hayward Gallery and the artist. © Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, DACS, 2026. · Exhibition

For anyone visiting, planning should begin with a confirmed slot and the venue’s current access information. The exhibition includes imagery suggestive of blood and entrails, as Southbank Centre’s content notice makes clear. Its final days offer an encounter with a broad range of Kapoor’s work, but the remaining opportunity depends on the specific admission arrangements in place this week.

Installation view of Anish Kapoor, 2026. Photo: Dave Morgan. Courtesy of the Hayward Gallery and the artist. © Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, DACS, 2026. · Exhibition

Sources

https://help.southbankcentre.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/39751751725725-Ticket-Availability-Anish-Kapoor-at-Hayward-Gallery

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/anish-kapoor/

https://www.lissongallery.com/artists/anish-kapoor/artworks/all-of-nothing?image_id=65944

https://www.lissongallery.com/artists/anish-kapoor/artworks/tsunami-iii?image_id=65922