Anish Kapoor: the wizard of forms

The first solo show of British artist Anish Kapoor in Turkey opens on September, 10th 2013, in the Sakıp Sabancı Museum in Istanbul. Some of his works will be also presented at the Akbank Sanat gallery on Istiklal Street, Istanbul. British Curator Norman Rosenthal, who also curated Kapoors current exhibition in the Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin, will be present with the artist at the opening.

Anish Kapoor produced the video “Gangnam For Freedom” in London last year. The music of “Gangnam Style” by Korean singer PSY got first adapted by chinese artist Ai Weiei. On the 24th of October 2012 he published a parody of Gangnam Style on Youtube to protest human rights abuses in China. Ai Weiwei is handcuffed in the Video and is ridiculing the shabbyness of the chinese fusion of dictatorship and fast growing capitalism. In solidarity with Ai Weiwei Anish Kapoor produced his version of Gangnam Style in South-London with the attendance of a crowd of artists, performers and dancers.

“Our film aims to make a serious point about freedom of speech and freedom of expression.” (Anish Kapoor)

Kapoor will present sculptures from marble, alabaster and other materials, which have not been shown to the public before.

Anish Kapoor is working on paintings, architectural installations and sculptures. The materials and forms he uses lead to a journey, where time and space are turned upside down. Some of his works are made out of reflective materials, in which the observer sees and reflects himself. Some are made out of constantly changing materials like wax or vaseline. The sculptures and installations are often space-filling and don´t allow simple classifications. Kapoor is famous for his complex metaphorical style in bombastic scales.

In 2010, “Turning the World Upside Down, Jerusalem” was commissioned and installed at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The sculpture is described as a “16-foot tall polished-steel hourglass” and it “reflects and reverses the Jerusalem sky and the museum’s landscape, a likely reference to the city’s duality of celestial and earthly, holy and profane.”

Video from his current exhibition in the Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin, Germany.

Anish Kapoor in Sakıp Sabancı Museum Istanbul from September 10th 2013 until January, 5th 2014.

Related articles across the web

• last days of Anish Kapoor in Berlin
• Ark Nova: a Collaboration between Anish Kapoor & Arata Isozaki