Gilbert & George Centre To Open In Spitalfields This Spring

The Gilbert & George Centre will be a permanent home for the artists' work when it opens in its courtyard setting on Heneage Street. 

Due to open April 1, the centre will house three galleries spanning 280 square metres of exhibition space. 

Read More: Europe's Largest Yoga Studio Arriving Soon In Spitalfields Wants You To Have A Wine

Keeping in line with the couple's 'Art for All' ethos, entry will be free for the majority of the centre's programme. 

Gilbert & George at the gates to The Gilbert & George Centre (Image: Photograph by Yu Yigang for Gilbert & George / Courtesy The Gilbert & George Centre)

The building itself has been designed by SIRS Architects in collaboration with Gilbert & George, and visitors enter the building through a cobbled courtyard through to a reception area reminiscent of Gilbert & George's restored Georgian home and studio on Fournier Street.

In addition to being an exhibition space, it's expected the centre will be a place for research and study on Gilbert & George's art, which the pair have been making for more than 50 years since meeting in art school in 1967. 

Often funny, always offbeat and challenging, the East End is central to the Turner prize winning artists' work, as is anti-elitist sentiment and provocation, with the artists once quoted as saying: "We want our art to bring out the bigot from inside the liberal and conversely bring out the liberal from inside the bigot."

Want the latest features and reviews straight into your inbox? Sign up for The Resident's weekly email newsletter here.

For their opening exhibition, Gilbert & George will show THE PARADISICAL PICTURES, which will be the collection's London premiere. 

The works depict Gilbert & George in a warped vision of a heavenly place, part psychedelic landscape, part science-fiction, part enchanted forest. 

The Gilbert & George Centre will open on April 1, 2023. 

Address: 5a Heneage Street, Stephney E1 5LJ

Website: gilbertandgeorgecentre.org