Anish Kapoor (Born 1954)

Anish Kapoor is without doubt one of Great Britain's leading sculptors. In terms of scale and popularity probably our greatest living artist. His 150m-long trumpet shaped 'Marsyas' sculpture, which stretched liked flayed skin over a framework that filled the cavernous Turbine Hall in Tate Modern drew record breaking crowds. The slow-moving juggernaut of dirty red wax he sent ploughing through the gilt edged galleries of the Royal Academy of Arts was the most successful exhibition ever staged by a living artist. For the 2012 Olympic Games he will create the tallest ever public artwork and Anish Kapoor has recently unveiled his 50m-high, 2.7 million pound 'Temenos', a gently twisted take on a vast butterfly net soaring over the Midlands, which together with his 'Tees Valley Giants' make up the largest public-art initiative ever. Anish Kapoor's success stretches across to Europe with projects planned for Paris's 13,500sq m Grand Palais and his global recognition has been firmly cemented with a huge sky mirror mounted near the Rockefeller centre in NY and 'Cloud Gate', a 110-tonne shimmering silver "Bean", parachuted into Chicago's Millennium Park. more