You know Jack White as the guitar visionary, the songwriter, the restless creative force behind some of modern rock’s great acts. But walk into a gallery in London this summer, and you’ll meet a different Jack White. One who has spent decades quietly building, restoring, sculpting and creating far from the spotlight.
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White has opened his first public art exhibition, These Thoughts May Disappear, at Newport Street Gallery in London. The exhibition opened on May 29 and runs through September 13.
Among the centrepieces is a reimagined version of White’s 2015 sculpture The Red Tree. The original project saw him paint a dying tree in his garden bright red.
“It died, I brought it back to life, and it died again, and now we’re bringing it back to life in a fake version of it, a plastic resin version of the tree which is also the height of the room,” White told Wallpaper.
“It was very collaborative for me in Nashville, with the team in London and the fabricators in China. To be able to be a director of a concept was really nice.”
The exhibition also shines a light on White’s roots as an upholsterer. Long before music became his career, he began apprenticing in upholstery at age 15 and later opened his own business, Third Man Upholstery, at 21 years old.
Several upholstered chairs are featured throughout the collection, including a collaboration with Damien Hirst. One piece began with Hirst painting directly onto leather before White carefully cut and transformed the material to reupholster an Eames chair.
“I’ve never cut a piece of leather so carefully in my life,” White said in a video showcasing the work.
Despite creating sculpture and upholstery pieces for more than 20 years, White never actively pursued a public exhibition.
“No one had ever really invited or encouraged me to exhibit my art, so I never really sought it out,” he explained. “I just made work in my own time. Until Hirst said: ‘Why don’t you do a show at our gallery?'”
The collection features more than 100 pieces, many inspired by found materials White rescued from the curb. It’s a practice that stretches back to his childhood in Detroit and continues today in his Nashville neighbourhood.
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“If you have a truck and it’s big garbage day and you’re in Detroit, you start garbage picking,” he said.
“I was taught about the creativity in taking an old piece of furniture that’s headed for the dump and rescuing it and bringing it back to life. It was the first thing I was taught to do with my hands.”
For White, the exhibition isn’t simply about displaying artwork. It’s about revealing a creative side that has largely remained hidden while his music career occupied centre stage.
“People don’t know this side of me,” he said. “I want them to see that this came from a passionate place, in an attempt to try to get somewhere with it.”
The exhibition arrives during another busy chapter for White. Earlier this year, he released the singles G.O.D. And The Broken Ribs and Derecho Demonico, performed both on Saturday Night Live, and joined forces with Jack Black for a performance of Seven Nation Army. The songs marked his first new music since the Grammy-nominated album No Name.
Now, instead of amplifiers and stage lights, White is inviting fans into a gallery filled with sculptures, furniture, rescued materials and decades of private creativity.
After seeing this side of Jack White, are you surprised his artistic creativity stretches beyond music?
