Jay Jopling
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Jay Jopling (born 1963) is a British contemporary art dealer and gallerist. He is married to the artist Sam Taylor-Wood.
Jopling was educated at Eton and studied art history at Edinburgh University. As a student he visited Manhattan where he forged links with post-war American artists, encouraging them to donate works for the charity auction New Art: New World. In the late 1980s probably the most significant event of Jopling's career occurred as Jopling formed a friendship with the artist Damien Hirst. In terms of background the two could not have been more dissimilar but Hirst had grown up in Leeds and Jopling, the son of Lord Jopling, Margaret Thatcher's Agriculture Minister, was brought up in Yorkshire. Hirst had already sold a number of works to the influential collector Charles Saatchi but Jopling enabled the artist to realise more ambitious projects including the sculpture 'The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living' and more recently the diamond skull 'For the Love of God'.
Initially Jopling only supported a small list of artists including Hirst, Tracey Emin, Antony Gormley and Marc Quinn organising exhibitions in warehouses. In 1993 he opened White Cube gallery in Duke Street, St. James's, London. In 2000 the gallery opened a second larger space in Hoxton and in 2006 opened a further gallery in Mason's Yard, off Piccadilly. Along the way, Jopling has acquired representation of a formidable list of young British artists including his wife Sam Taylor-Wood, the Chapman Brothers, Gilbert & George and Gary Hume as well as major international artists including Chuck Close, Andreas Gursky, Anselm Kiefer, Gabriel Orozco, Doris Salcedo and Jeff Wall.
With his trademark rectangular frame glasses and Savile Row suits Jopling is often portrayed as a svengali figure moulding and encouraging his artists. He is one of the most successful British gallerists in recent history and this is partly a result of his astute business sense.
