You know Jack White as the guy who made a generation fall in love with fuzz pedals, garage rock and the colour red. What you might not know is that he’s also spent the last few decades quietly building sculptures, furniture and strange objects out of whatever materials he can get his hands on.
This summer, London finally gets to see it.
On 29 May 2026, Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery will open THESE THOUGHTS MAY DISAPPEAR, the first public exhibition of White’s visual art. The show runs until 13 September, and if his design obsessions are anything like his music, expect something raw, obsessive and slightly unhinged.
The exhibition pulls together sculptures built from found objects, interactive installations and furniture pieces — the kind of work that feels half art-school experiment, half obsessive workshop project. One standout piece is a remake of White’s 2015 sculpture The Red Tree, where a decaying tree gets transformed into something somewhere between relic and monument.
White’s visual instincts go way back. Born in Detroit in 1975, he cut his teeth working upholstery before opening Third Man Upholstery in 1996. Around the same time he was absorbing the DIY ethos of Detroit’s Cass Corridor artists — including Gordon Newton and Robert Sestok — alongside a love of mid-century modern design.
Music obviously happened next (see: The White Stripes), but the design obsession never went away. Through Third Man Records, White has quietly extended that aesthetic into everything from interiors and photography to film and industrial design.
Most of the sculpture and upholstery stayed private — workshop experiments, one-offs, things built because he felt like building them.
Until now.
THESE THOUGHTS MAY DISAPPEAR feels less like a traditional art show and more like someone finally opening the door to the studio they’ve been tinkering away in for 30 years.
THESE THOUGHTS MAY DISAPPEAR
29 May — 13 September 2026
Newport Street Gallery
Newport Street, London SE11 6AJ
Tuesday–Sunday, 10am–6pm
Free entry
