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White Cube goes west with gallery in St James's
By Tom Teodorczuk, Evening Standard 27.09.06
Second home: St James's gallery
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It is London's modern art hub, the gallery that Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Gilbert and George, Antony Gormley and Marc Quinn all call home.
Now White Cube's founder Jay Jopling has unveiled a second, £12 million gallery in the West End.
It will complement the existing premises in Hoxton Square in the East End and reinforce London's position as the world's capital for contemporary art.
The new outpost in Mason's Yard, St James's, has been built on the site of a former electricity sub-station. It will be the first new freestanding building to be built in the area for more than 30 years.
White Cube has come a long way since Mr Jopling opened it as a tiny project space for artists - originally in St James's - in 1993.
Now he plans to showcase blockbuster exhibitions simultaneously at both galleries, beginning with a Hirst show next summer.
Mr Jopling, one of London's most influential art dealers and married to artist Sam Taylor-Wood, said: "London is unarguably the pre-eminent city for contemporary art in Europe.
"White Cube Mason's Yard will allow us to showcase artists in the centre of the capital as well as continuing to present their work in our Hoxton Square gallery. The new White Cube will more than double our gallery space and provide a broader platform for bringing world-class art to a world-class city."
The inaugural exhibition at Mason's Yard will be by celebrated Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco. Its centrepiece will be a life-size sculpture of a whale skeleton suspended in the main gallery space.
Orozco will be followed by Palestinianborn British artist Mona Hatoum, Canadian photographer Jeff Wall, Germans Anselm Kiefer and Andreas Gursky and a collaboration between Britons Jake and Dinos Chapman and American photo-realist painter Chuck Close. There are also plans for exhibitions by Quinn, Gormley and Gilbert and George.
In future, the Hoxton Square gallery will host up-and-coming artists while the new St James's building will focus on leading international contemporary artists. Tim Marlow, director of exhibitions at White Cube, said: "The West End is easier for many international curators and directors while the East End is more of a haven for artists.
"We hope to straddle both worlds, but the galleries won't be reflecting different artistic sensibilities. White Cube attracts a huge number of visitors in Hoxton and the question is whether we will get as many people coming to the West End."
