Jack White Opens His First Art Show at Newport Street Gallery

May 28. Jack White's first art exhibition opened at Newport Street Gallery in London. The show, titled These Thoughts May Disappear, runs through late summer at Damien Hirst's Vauxhall space. Fifty-four works, mostly sculpture and assemblage, built from tour leftovers and studio debris.

The pieces pull from two decades of White's archive: broken guitar necks, setlist scraps, torn posters, microphone stands bent at odd angles. One work stacks vinyl singles into a column. Another mounts a shattered drumhead in a steel frame. The materials are what gets left behind after a venue empties out.

White told Wallpaper* the process required stripping away performer ego. "You have to get your ego out of the way," he said in the interview. The work sidesteps the expected rock-star gesture. No gold records on the wall, no framed platinum plaques. The gallery notes describe the pieces as "anti-monumental."

Newport Street Gallery is Hirst's own space, opened in 2015 to show his private collection and occasional guest exhibitions. The pairing makes sense: both artists work with repetition, both use found objects, both understand spectacle as a material condition rather than a pose. Hirst's shark in formaldehyde; White's crushed setlist under glass.

The show is White's first in a gallery context, though he's produced visual work for years. Album covers, stage design, furniture for Third Man Records' Nashville headquarters. This is the first time the work stands alone, unattached to a release or a tour cycle.

Admission is free. The gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00 to 18:00. No advance booking required.