‘This is fascist America’: Anish Kapoor may file lawsuit after border agents pick up his statue | Anish Kapoor

Artist Anish Kapoor is considering legal action after Border Patrol agents posed for a photo in front of his “Cloud Gate” sculpture in Chicago, saying the scene represented “fascist America.”

The Indian-born artist said a friend living in the US city sent him the photo on Tuesday morning in a conversation about his show at the Southbank Centre’s Hayward Gallery, which opens next year.

“Kidnapping street vendors, breaking down doors, pulling people out of cars, and using tear gas on residential streets,” he said of the agents who were reportedly celebrating after “military-style” immigration enforcement raids. “I mean this is fascist America and it’s unbelievable.”

There have been reports that federal agents have arrested more than 1,000 people since the campaign began in September. When asked if he was considering legal options, Kapoor said: “Of course, I will do everything I can.”

The Kapoors took legal action against the National Rifle Association (NRA) after they used an image of Cloud Gate, which was installed in 2006 and known locally as “the Bean,” in an ad.

He settled out of court with the NRA in 2018. “It’s a little more complicated, because they’re an entire unit of the national army, if you like,” Kapoor said of the latest incident.“.

Kapoor recently opened an exhibition focusing on his early works at the Jewish Museum in New York (his mother was Iraqi Jew). The Southbank exhibition, which will span the entire Hayward Gallery and feature around 40 works, is a different beast.

Opening on June 16, 2026 and running through October 18, visitors will encounter Kapoor’s usual mix of large-scale, monumental works using vibrant pigments and Vantablack, the most intense black paint ever created. In Hayward, he will unveil two new pieces: the first is an intumescent PVC membrane.

“When you enter the gallery, there is a very large piece that takes up the entire first gallery,” he said. “It, if you like, bulges out and fills that entire space, pushing the viewer right to the side.”

The second is described by the Southbank Center as a “dark mountain sill” looming “amid a sprawling red landscape” located within the upper gallery.

“I hope what it does is trigger a feeling in the viewer: ‘What is this?’ ‘Is this art?’ ‘Why am I here with this?’ I think those are very important questions, because what they do is unleash emotions,” he said.

The exhibition will also include Kapoor’s 2022 work, Mount Moriah at the Ghetto Gate, a massive swirl of black and red descending from the ceiling. There are a few works from the 1990s and 2000s, but much of the show comes from his production over the past five years.

“I don’t think Hayward is a place for retrospect,” he said. “It’s a place that calls for bold proposals and I’m jumping in with both feet.”

Curated by former Hayward artistic director Ralph Rugoff, the exhibition represents a full-circle moment for Kapoor, who made his first major survey in a public gallery at the Southbank Center in 1998.

Kapoor, who was born in Mumbai and won the Turner Prize in 1991, will be one of the highlights of the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary celebrations.

In September, the Southbank Center announced that Danny Boyle’s You Are Here would see thousands of participants occupy the site in celebration of the role the institution has “played in supporting youth culture since its inception”.

Celebrations will begin in May to mark the 75th anniversary of the Festival of Britain, which foundation leaders hope will “galvanize” the country in the same way as the original celebration did in 1951.

“Seventy-five years is a long time in which a lot has changed,” Kapoor said. “Of course, the post-war optimism is gone, but perhaps we can stimulate another optimism. Britain is made up of all kinds of people, from all kinds of places, coming together with this strangely positive sense of what it means to talk about ourselves as British.”

The anniversary will also include a celebration of Benjamin Zephaniah and composer Steve Reich, while Goalhanger Podcasts will host the events, and pianist Yuja Wang will present her immersive show Playing with Fire.