The new Peter Doig‘s exhibition, House of Music, has opened at the Serpentine South Gallery, transforming the space into a multi-sensory environment where painting, sound, and memory converge. Supported by Phoebe Philo, this project invites visitors to immerse themselves in a world where music and art intertwine, blurring the lines between gallery and living room.
A multi-sensory environment rooted in listening and reflection
In House of Music, Peter Doig redefines the exhibition experience. The Serpentine South Gallery becomes a listening space, filled with his luminous paintings and an atmospheric soundtrack playing through restored vintage analogue speakers. These include 1950s wooden Klangfilm Euronor speakers and a rare Western Electric/Bell Labs sound system—pioneering technology originally created for early “talking movies.”
The exhibition’s soundscape draws from Doig’s extensive personal archive of vinyl records and cassette tapes. The result is an enveloping acoustic landscape that deepens the viewer’s connection to the artworks—each painting accompanied by a resonant hum of time, place, and emotion.
Peter Doig works: between memory, music, and place
Many of the Peter Doig works on display trace their roots to his years in Trinidad (2002–2021), when the island’s sound-system culture and cinematic traditions profoundly shaped his artistic language. Paintings like Shadow (2019), a portrait of Trinidadian calypsonian Winston “Shadow” Bailey, and Embah in Paris (2017), a tribute to the poet and artist Emheyo Bahabba, capture figures who embody the rhythm and resilience of Caribbean culture.
Elsewhere, vast canvases featuring lions lounging in tropical light or playing amid deserted urban backdrops evoke the Rastafarian Lion of Judah—symbols of strength and spiritual vitality. Each work seems to hum with the pulse of the music that inspired it, transforming stillness into melody.
Music and art in dialogue
The exhibition extends beyond static display through Sound Service, a series of live listening sessions held every Sunday. Musicians, artists, and collectors—among them Brian Eno, Linton Kwesi Johnson, and Lizzi Bougatsos—will share selections from their personal archives, creating spontaneous conversations between sound and painting.
These gatherings reinforce House of Music’s spirit of creative exchange, inviting audiences to listen, linger, and reflect. The gallery becomes a communal space—part salon, part studio, part concert hall—where music and art are not merely exhibited but lived.
Don’t miss this immersive project, on view at the Serpentine South Gallery until February 8th, 2026.
Photography by PRUDENCE CUMING ASSOCIATES
Photography by PRUDENCE CUMING ASSOCIATES
Photography by PRUDENCE CUMING ASSOCIATES
