Lisson Gallery announces a new exhibition of seven new large-scale sculptures by Anish Kapoor, comprising the most ambitious Lisson show the artist has undertaken in his 25-year history with the gallery. This show, which runs from 13 October - 18 November 2006, marks the first time one artist has made a single exhibition using all available gallery spaces.

Renowned for his enigmatic sculptural forms, this exciting new body of work finds Kapoor continuing his exploration of metaphysical polarities: presence and absence, being and non-being, place and non-place, the solid versus the intangible. Further to his ongoing concerns with human presence and perception, Kapoor investigates the ephemeral nature of sight, and examines the role of the psyche in our interpretation of visual stimuli.

In each of Lisson Gallery spaces the artist will exhibit a different aspect of his work. In the main gallery, a wall slowly moves through the space describing a blood red hemisphere. This “proto-object” of pure colour is formed by the movement of the wall. In another room a 12m mirrored arc plays with light and reflection creating such physical tension that the viewer feels at a crossroads between the real and the unreal. Elsewhere, the glistening surface and seductive void of an opalescent “pocket piece” suggest myths of origin or, in the words of cultural critic Homi K. Bhabha, “ excessive engendering emptiness.”

Kapoor will also be unveiling collaboration with author Salman Rushdie. Though Kapoor is known for his collaborative projects with other celebrated cultural figures, this is his first project with a writer and also marks the first time that he has worked with text. This sculpture is the culmination of a 20-year dialogue between the two, ultimately conceived during a series of visits Rushdie made to the artist's studio.

This dialogue resulted in a mesmeric sculpture consisting of two bronze boxes conjoined with red wax and inscribed around the outside with the first two paragraphs of Rushdie's text; “Blood Relations, or an Interrogation of the Arabian Nights”. “I've responded very strongly to the sensuality of Anish's forms and to his ability to remain lyrical even when he works on an immense scale” says Rushdie, “we share a strong interest in the continuing power of myth, and [his] forms, though they clearly belong to his own universe of shape, arise out of an interest, very similar to my own, in the physicality of the body and the existing world of phenomena.”

Finally, Kapoor will devote one room in the gallery to the maquettes of critically acclaimed public commissions including Marsyas, Tate Modern Turbine Hall, 2002 and Cloud Gate, Millennium Park, Chicago, 2004, and the Monte Sant'Angelo underground stations in Naples with Future Systems.

ABOUT ANISH KAPOOR

Anish Kapoor is one of the most influential sculptors of his generation. Born in Bombay, he has lived and worked in London since the early 70's. His work has been exhibited worldwide and is held in numerous private and public collections, including the Tate Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Reina Sofia in Madrid and Stedlijk Museum in Amsterdam.

Kapoor sees his work as being engaged with deep-rooted metaphysical polarities; presence and absence, being and non-being, place and non-place and the solid and the intangible. Throughout Kapoor's sculptures his fascination with darkness and light is apparent; the translucent quality of the resin works, the absorbent nature of the pigment, the radiant glow of alabaster and the fluid reflections of stainless steel and water. Through this interplay between form and light, Kapoor aspires to evoke sublime experiences, which address primal physical and psychological states.

The works shown here are from Kapoor's most recent show at Lisson Gallery: 'Blood' May/June 2000. For this exhibition Kapoor adopted an experimental approach as he explores new visual languages within his work. Through the use of elemental materials, including water and air, Kapoor continues his investigations into the material and immaterial, weight and weightlessness, surface and space, the ocular and the aural, as he subtly balances the literal and the illusory to animate the senses.

Anish Kapoor won the Premio 2000 in 1990 when he represented the British Pavillion at the XLIV Venice Biennial. He was awarded the Turner Prize in 1991 and in 1992 Kapoor contributed to Documenta IX with the building 'Descent into Limbo'. In the same year Expo Seville commissioned a large architectural work entitled 'Building for Void'. After his Exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in 1998 and his ambitious exhibition at CAPC Bordeaux, the South Bank Show presented the first full-length television profile of Anish Kapoor in February 1999.

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