Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Jack White Opens First Public Art Exhibition at Damien Hirst’s London Gallery

Revealing White’s decades-long upholstery and found-object practice, the show also signals Hirst’s institutional backing of his visual work.

Overview

  • The exhibition, which opened on Friday May 29, runs at Newport Street Gallery through September 13 and presents more than 100 sculptures, paintings, photographs and pieces of furniture.
  • This is White’s first public art show after decades of private sculpture and upholstery work, and it was mounted after Damien Hirst invited him following their meeting in 2021.
  • Many works foreground White’s upholsterer training and garbage-picking habit, using found materials and techniques such as spray painting, welding, embroidery and tiling to make furniture, assemblages and interactive pieces.
  • The show includes collaborative and specially fabricated pieces, notably an Eames chair reupholstered by White with leather painted by Hirst, a remade version of White’s 2015 Red Tree, and work made with fabricators overseas.
  • One outlet reports free admission to the exhibition and the public presentation could broaden how fans and galleries see White’s practice while drawing attention to craft-led, multidisciplinary art outside traditional fine-art training.