Peter Doig brings painting and sound together in a new project at Serpentine South
Peter Doig returns to Serpentine South this autumn with House of Music, a new exhibition that places his paintings in dialogue with sound. Opening 10 October, the show will be the first to explore the role of music and listening in the artist’s work — and marks a return to the gallery where Doig first exhibited as a finalist in the 1991 Barclays Young Artist Award.
Best known for his dreamlike compositions and shifting landscapes, Doig has long been considered one of Britain’s most distinctive painters. In House of Music, his interest in memory, image and atmosphere finds a new register through sound — with selections from his personal archive of records and cassette tapes playing on restored analogue cinema speakers throughout the gallery.
The exhibition brings together recent large-scale paintings, many created during his years in Trinidad, alongside a set of rare 20th-century speakers assembled by London-based audio specialist Laurence Passera. The space will function as both gallery and listening room — part exhibition, part sonic installation.
Doig has spoken often about the visual nature of music, and his interest in the kinds of images it conjures. Here, the relationship becomes more literal. Portraits of musicians and dancers sit alongside works that reflect on the places and ways people gather to listen — from city parks to roadside bars.
On Sundays, the gallery will host Sound Service, a series of live listening sessions featuring guest artists and musicians, including Brian Eno, Dennis Bovell, Linton Kwesi Johnson and others, who will share music from their own collections using the exhibition’s vintage sound systems.
The show takes its name from a 2011 song by Trinidadian calypsonian Shadow — a musician Doig has often cited as an influence, and whose portrait appears in one of the works. In line with the Serpentine’s interest in cross-disciplinary practice, House of Music invites visitors not only to view, but to listen, reflect and linger — offering a quieter kind of immersion.
Peter Doig: House of Music
Serpentine South
10 October 2025 – 8 February 2026
Elena Leo is the Arts & Lifestyle Editor of Ikon London Magazine.
