Contemporary Art Market: Sculptor creates fibreglass vision: Turner prize winner displays his expertise

THE MOST expensive contemporary sculpture in London last week comprised two fibreglass hemispheres covered in magenta pigment looking at each other - or maybe listening to each other.

They are the work of Anish Kapoor, winner of the 1991 Turner prize, and Britain's expert in the use of rich, powdery pigments. His 5ft hemispheres cost pounds 70,000 and are on show at the Lisson Gallery at 67 Lisson Street, London NW1.

Nicholas Logsdail, who runs the gallery, has groomed most of the new wave of British sculptors for fame and fortune. Kapoor represented Britain at the last Venice Biennale and constructed a very popular black hole lined with powdery pigment for the Documenta exhibition in Kassel last year.

His drawings, mostly around 3ft square, are financially the most accessible for collectors ( pounds 5,000 to pounds 6,000). They use scribbles, ink patterns - and pigment, of course. Red is the most popular colour this year.

The other works on show would be difficult to accommodate in a private home. There is a 6ft lump of sandstone with a red hole and another large piece of Portland stone with a smooth egg shape gouged out of one side. There are also wall pieces with shapes and lines cut out and filled with red pigment. Sculpture prices start at pounds 12,000.

Another of Britain's important new sculptors, David Nash, has an exhibition at Annely Juda Fine Art at 23 Dering Street, W1. Where Kapoor has made the visual mystery of matt, grainy colour - which can appear to have infinite depth - the hallmark of his work, Nash, who is nine years his senior, has forged a partnership with wood. He cuts and burns the wood to highlight more vividly its living nature.

Nash has worked all over the world, for many museums and institutions, but he has never won the Turner prize. So his prices are significantly lower than Kapoor. The most dramatic piece in the show, Red and Black, made in Poland in 1991, is priced at pounds 25,000. It is an installation reminiscent of a primordial forest; boulders of red alder wood, in various roughly hewn shapes, alternated with charred sections of oak trees. His drawings, charcoal and chalk sketches of his sculptures, sell from about pounds 1,500.

Nash is devoted to ecology and only works with fallen trees or those due for felling. Next month he leaves for Japan where he has been commissioned to carve trees that are to be felled at Hokaido University.