Jeremy Michael " Jay" Jopling (born June 1963) is an English art dealer and gallerist.
Early life
Jeremy Michael Jopling is the son of
Michael Jopling, a Conservative politician who served for some time as Minister for Agriculture in the Conservative Government led by Margaret Thatcher.
Jopling was brought up in
Yorkshire and educated at
Eton College and the University of Edinburgh, where he studied English literature and history of art, and his first job was selling fire extinguishers door-to-door.
Career
As a university student, Jopling 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, he formed a friendship with the artist
Damien Hirst. After completing his M.A. in 1984, he moved to
London and began working with artists of his generation.
In May 1993, he opened the original White Cube on the first floor of 44 Duke Street, St James, in West End. Its exhibition policy was to provide a one-off showcase for both British and international artists. White Cube exhibited some of the leading contemporary artists, including Lucian Freud, Gilbert & George, Antony Gormley, Sarah Morris, Mona Hatoum, Marc Quinn, Damien Hirst, Gary Hume, Runa Islam, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Tracey Emin, Harland Miller, Sam Taylor-Wood, Gavin Turk and Cerith Wyn Evans.
In 2000, Jopling opened the larger White Cube Hoxton Square in London's East End, occupying a converted 1920s light industrial building. The gallery space closed in December 2012.
Paddle8
Jopling invested heavily in an online auction platform called Paddle8. Paddle8 merged with competitor online auction house
Auctionata in early 2016.
By February 2017, Auctionata declared
insolvency and Paddle8 became an independent company once again.
Personal life
Jopling was married to artist Sam Taylor-Wood; together they have two daughters, Angelica (b. June 1997) and Jessie Phoenix (b. November 2005).
In September 2008, the couple announced that they were separating amicably after 11 years of marriage.
He subsequently married Hikari Yokoyama, who works for Paddle8.
In 2019, their daughter, Djuna Mei Jopling, was born.
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