Has Damien Hirst become romantic? In the same week as his painting of Lionel Messi is being auctioned by Sotheby’s in London for the 1:11 educational programme, the Paul Stopler Gallery in Bloomsbury, London, is showing his new collection of original prints and sculptures around the theme of LOVE in time for Valentine’s Day. The exhibition includes the new “LOVE Gold” collection of 14 love-heart prints, each featuring a single butterfly, eight of which were screen-printed, while the other six were created from gold leaf and also includes two sculptures shaped like love-heart sweets, while another is a heart pierced by a crossbow bolt hanging free in a sweet jar.
“Love is a beautiful thing and I see it as a small antidote to all the horror of the world” (Damien Hirst).
Meanwhile, one of the anticipated new gallery openings of 2015 is the gallery being created in a row of old warehouses in Vauxhall, south London, to house Damien Hirst’s art collection. The Newport Street Gallery is being designed by Caruso St John to house Damien Hirst’s collection of over 2,000 artworks, including work by Francis Bacon, Sarah Lucas, Banksy and Jeff Koons.
Three existing warehouse buildings – formerly used for theatre carpentry and scenery production – are being refurbished and extended with new extensions built from black engineering bricks at each end of the terrace
“It’s my Saatchi gallery, basically,” he said at the time of his exhibition in the Tate Gallery in 2012. ”It’s a place to show my collection of contemporary art. It feels bad having it all in crates.”