The Exhibition List: Art, Memory, and Movement
Five exhibitions to see this week, from Anish Kapoor in London to Hiroshi Sugimoto in Tokyo and Lara Baladi in Cairo
This week’s exhibitions explore how artists navigate movement, memory, and perception. From monumental sculpture and analogue photography to migration, home, and political histories, these five exhibitions reveal how art continues to reinterpret the spaces we inhabit and the experiences that define us.
Anish Kapoor
Hayward Gallery, London
Nearly three decades after his landmark survey at the Hayward Gallery, Anish Kapoor returns with an immersive exhibition spanning sculpture, installation, and painting. Bringing together celebrated mirror works, sculptures coated in Vantablack, and monumental new installations, the exhibition explores perception, space, and the body’s relationship to form. From seemingly endless voids to reflective surfaces that distort reality, Kapoor’s works invite viewers to question what they see while confronting themes of scale, materiality, and human vulnerability.
On view until 31 August 2026.
In Transit
Artbooth Gallery, Abu Dhabi
Bringing together seven artists from across the Middle East, In Transit explores movement as both a physical and psychological condition. Spanning abstraction, figuration, and conceptual practice, the exhibition traces themes of memory, identity, displacement, and perception through interconnected artistic voices. From Palestinian narratives of belonging to reflections on conflict, urban history, and Arab cinema, the works reveal how personal and collective experiences shape visual language across generations, geographies, and artistic disciplines.
On view until 31 August 2026.
Homelands
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Drawing from the National Gallery’s collection, Homelands brings together more than 20 works by modern and contemporary artists exploring the relationship between people and place. Organised around themes such as family and memory, the exhibition examines how migration, personal history, and cultural identity shape ideas of home. Together, the works offer a nuanced portrait of the United States through diverse artistic perspectives.
On view until 1 August 2027.
Hiroshi Sugimoto: Extinction
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
This major exhibition presents around 60 gelatin silver photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto, spanning his practice from the late 1970s to today. At a moment when digital technology threatens the survival of analogue processes, the show foregrounds Sugimoto’s conceptual rigour and technical mastery. A parallel display features works from the museum’s collection alongside notebooks documenting his photographic process.
On view until 13 September 2026.
Z for Zarafa
Gypsum Gallery, Cairo
Egyptian-Lebanese artist Lara Baladi uses the story of Zarafa, the giraffe sent from Egypt to France in 1827, to examine migration, diplomacy, and power. Through tapestry, photography, sculpture, and archival references, the exhibition connects forced movement with revolution, exile, and return. Collaborative works also incorporate experiences shared by migrant and refugee women in Egypt.
On view until 23 September 2026.