ART
Damien Hirst's Newport Street Gallery
A Wonderful Testament to John Hoyland
A solo exhibition of work by John Hoyland (1934–2011) inaugurates Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery, which opens today in Vauxhall, south London. ‘Power Stations’ presents over thirty of Hoyland’s large-scale paintings, drawn from Hirst’s collection. Spanning a pivotal period in the artist’s career, the works are on display throughout all six of the gallery’s exhibition spaces until 3rd April 2016. The gallery is housed within three renovated red-brick warehouses – originally built in 1913 for theatre carpentry and scenery production – and two new structures constructed from black engineering bricks. It stretches along an entire street in Vauxhall. Hirst’s Gallery opened to the public on 8 October 2015, with an inaugural exhibition dedicated to the work of Hoyland. John Hoyland, one of the biggest and most influential British abstract painters on the art scene, with an exceptional 33-piece show dating from 1964 to 1982 arranged chromatically across six exhibition rooms. It’s a masterstroke that promises to set the bar high, but it’s not Hirst’s first curating gig, he has already handled a show of his own collection at the Serpentine Gallery, featuring gems of contemporary art from Richard Prince, Tracey Emin, Francis Bacon, Jeff Koons, Gary Hume and more.