Jack White Is the Latest Celebrity to Put His Art on Show

Jack White will open his first UK exhibition at Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery in London this May, becoming the latest name on an ever-growing list of famous musicians turning their hands to visual art.

In a show titled These Thoughts May Disappear, the White Stripes’ frontman will present sculptures made with found objects, interactive works, installations and furniture design products, drawing inspiration from the urban environment, mid-century modern furniture designs and the De Stijl and Dada movements. 

According to a statement, White describes his work as “hardware store art”. This, apparently, is a synthesis of carpentry, upholstery, assemblage and re-appropriation, achieved through the use of resins, paints and found objects. 

In the more than 20 years since White, alongside former bandmate and partner Meg White, first found mainstream success with the album White Blood Cells, his practice has been largely private.

However, the man behind 2003’s Seven Nation Army is now taking his art to the people. In doing so, he is presumably hoping to replicate some of the outsized cultural impact achieved by the track—or, at the very least, to generate the same grudging acceptance extended by the art world to the likes of David Bowie, Bob Dylan or Ronnie Wood.

Should he fail in this, White risks meeting the same fate as other more recent—and rather less rock ‘n’ roll—additions to the capital’s art scene, Ed Sheeran and Robbie Williams. The pair’s efforts were respectively branded “a slick con job” and “tone deaf” by the Guardian’s critics during their runs at HENI Gallery and Moco Museum last year.

White’s exhibition, which will include a remake of his 2015 decaying sculpture The Red Tree, opens on 29 May—and judgement will surely soon follow.