In the midst of autumn, London transforms into far more than a painting exhibition:
Peter Doig turns the Serpentine into a listening space.
House of Music will be the most comprehensive reflection to date of the artist’s multilayered dialogue between painting, sound, and memory.
Music Rises from Within the Paintings
Doig’s canvases have always carried melodies echoing within silence.
This time, those melodies become truly audible.
The artist broadcasts hundreds of records and cassettes selected from his archive through 1950s wooden Klangfilm Euronor speakers.
Upon stepping into the gallery, visitors will not merely look at paintings;
they will enter an atmosphere undulating between color, sound, and time.
Each painting establishes a different connection with music:
Some depict spaces where music is made; others show dancing people,
and still others bear only the traces left by sound.
From Trinidad to London: A Focus of Memory
During the years Doig lived in Trinidad (2002–2021), he became passionately attached to sound culture, street cinemas, and sound systems.
The rhythms of those years—calypso, reggae, dub—now echo again in this exhibition.
Personal memories and imaginary scenes intertwine on the canvases.
The artist carries Trinidad’s cultural exuberance to London with its mixed rhythms.
At the heart of the exhibition stands a 1930s Western Electric / Bell Labs sound system.
This rare device belongs to the dawn of “talking pictures” and now functions like a sound sculpture.
For this project, Doig collaborated with sound system specialist Laurence Passera, who rescues old cinema speakers—
transforming past technology into today’s art.
The Exhibition as a Listening Experience
House of Music is a space not only for looking but for listening:
every painting, every sound piece creates a sense of community.
In Doig’s words, the exhibition is “a house of remembering”—a space where music, film, and friendship resonate.
Every Sunday, the gallery will come alive again with live listening sessions titled Sound Service.
In these sessions, artists such as Brian Eno, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Dennis Bovell, Lizzi Bougatsos, and Ed Ruscha
will share pieces from their own archives on analog systems.
The venue will transform from an exhibition hall into a shared rhythm space.
Apartman No:26 Note — “Where Sound Is Painted”
Peter Doig’s House of Music exhibition convinces the viewer that hearing, not just art, is an aesthetic experience.
Every painting, every sound is filled with the echo of the past as much as the vibration of the present.
This exhibition makes physically visible for the first time the bridge Doig has been building for years between painting and music—
and perhaps reminds us:
looking at a painting is sometimes like listening to a song.
📍 Serpentine South Gallery
🗓️ Continues until 8 February 2026
📍 Kensington Gardens, London W2 3XA, United Kingdom
