A selection of never-before-seen sculptures by world-renowned artist Anish Kapoor is now on view at the Sakip Sabanci Museum in Istanbul. The Anish Kapoor Exhibition, sponsored by Akbank, will be available through January 5, 2014. The exhibition is curated by Sir Norman Rosenthal.

Many of the works were realized using natural stones, such as marble, travertine, alabaster, sandstone, milky Iranian onyx and rich slate from Ireland. Each piece is painstakingly shaped, sanded and polished. And it’s no surprise that Kapoor chose Istanbul to showcase his labor of love, some of which are 25 years in the making. Istanbul’s deep history is a manifest in stone – through its walls and its mosques, stone forms the very fabric of this ancient and important city in the story of civilization.

“Carving is a very curious act. In a way it’s a transformation. Stone has this elemental physicality, [doing] almost anything [to it] then is a kind of abuse,” says Kapoor.

The Sakip Sabanci Museum, opened in 2002, is a private museum in Istanbul, Turkey. Recently the museum gained worldwide notoriety with the exhibitions of Pablo Picasso and Auguste Rodin.