Russ Jones Returns: Topshop Collaboration Marks New Era for London Art Scene

Globe and Mail

23-05-2025

Russ Jones, the enigmatic artist once associated with Miami's high-voltage underground art scene and Palm Beach's Billionaires Row, has quietly resurfaced in London. Not through a gallery. Not via a museum. But through an unexpected collaboration with high-street titan Topshop. His upcoming installation, Pompadour, launched in partnership with Chelsea's most exquisite greengrocer, Andreas of Chelsea Green, seems to be the key to seeing what this artist has planned for the city in the coming years.
His recent campaign with Topshop saw the brand emerge similarly from the shadows, supporting them from launch to their first real-life event with Defected Records. This next installation doesn't seem part of Topshop's relaunch strategy. Rather, it's Jones' first public gesture in a city he now seems intent on infiltrating—one collaboration at a time.
Pompadour is his first standalone work since 2023 when Jones vanished from public view after a string of impossible-to-access oil paintings and notorious, invitation-only installations flooded the city. Pompadour marks a return not just to art but to a broader cultural practice: one that folds in fashion, food, flowers, and theatre.
The Pompadour installation occurs inside and around Andreas, a family-run, high-end greengrocer famed for its immaculate displays and rare produce, often sourced for London's best restaurants. Jones and Andreas' collaboration is less about spectacle and more about texture, fusing their shared obsession with presentation, ritual, and emotional provocation.
Topshop, for its part, is not part of this project. Still, it will be interesting to see how the two brands grow together over the coming years, whether London can support the high level of experience Russ Jones was famed for in Miami or whether this is a temporary stage for something larger. What that 'something' is remains undefined.
Jones' work has always embraced uncertainty. His installations are less exhibitions than provocations. They invite interpretation, participation, sometimes discomfort, and always memory.
The Chelsea intervention is rumored to be the first of many. Jones' editorial platform, www.hotgirlslikeart.com, has been teasing cryptic fragments and early glimpses of what's to come. There is no announced roadmap—only a feeling that Jones is back in play and that London may not be ready for how he moves.
He's continuing his collaborative rhythm—this time not with fashion insiders or luxury houses, but with artisans, producers, and institutions that value excellence over hype. No one is sure where he'll go next. That's part of the allure.
After years in exile, Russ Jones laid the foundations for a city known for its closed circles.
He's not asking to be let in.
He's setting the table.
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