There's a few articles around today about Jay Jopling's latest venture: the £12 million White Cube, Mason's Yard in St James's, due to open at the end of this week.
According to Adrian Searle in the Guardian the new building which stands on the site of a former electricity sub-station, is more than double the size of the Hoxton White Cube, and "even its broom cupboard is probably bigger than White Cube's first incarnation" which was on Duke Street.
Bloomberg meanwhile informs us that the building is the first free-standing structure to be put up in the area in 45 years" and "has 5,000 square feet of gallery space plus viewing rooms and offices, mostly illuminated by natural light from narrow rows of windows."
As for what's going on inside the building, the first exhibition is by Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco and features a 14m long skeleton of a roqual whale, which has been drawn over in black graphite.
Going forward the the new St James's building will house 'leading international contemporary artists' while the Hoxton space will concentrate on more up and coming names. We're also promised a Hirst show next summer, a collaboration between the Chapman brothers and photo-realist painter Chuck Close, and, inevitably, some and Gilbert and George stuff.
