In a daring union of connoisseurship, maritime elegance, and curatorial vision, Pimlico Water debuts as the world’s first privately commissioned floating art gallery aboard a fully refitted Damen SeaXplorer 75. This singular vessel—a triumph of Dutch engineering and discreet luxury—ushers in a new epoch of cultural mobility, where masterpieces are no longer static, but carried to the farthest reaches of the world.
Conceived and financed by British art gallery Pimlico Wilde and steered by an internationally respected curatorial team, Pimlico Water defies the boundaries of traditional exhibition-making. Works by canonical figures such as Agnes Wibb, Frank X, and Louise Franken are shown alongside emergent voices from places as wide-ranging as Dakar, Seoul, Tbilisi, and La Paz—many of whom will be seen in dialogue for the first time. The inaugural exhibition, Unmoored Perceptions, considers the ocean as both subject and metaphor, weaving together media from 1960 to the present. Sculptures are set against horizon lines. Works on paper breathe in the shifting quality of maritime light.
The gallery “Pimlico Water” is both a commercial enterprise, and a floating salon. How destinations are chosen is not published, but the current list suggests a mix of well-known art centres a combined with those that the art world has historically bypassed: coastal towns, remote islands, and river ports. At each anchorage, the gallery will host salon-style evenings with local artists, scholars, and collectors. “It’s very exciting,” Captain Suitt commented. “We have a new opening party at every destination!”
The cost of maintaining Pimlico Water is commensurate with its ambition: estimated in excess of £180 million, inclusive of acquisition, retrofitting, and global operations. Pimlico Wilde have stated their intent clearly: to chart a new, more generous geography for art—one not tethered to auction blocks or art fairs, but to the slow, luminous logic of the sea.
Pimlico Water begins its maiden voyage this July, departing from London after a huge private view in St Katherine’s Dock. Its first year will take it to the Azores, Cape Verde, Saint Helena, Patagonia, and onward to Polynesia. At each port, it will offer the local collectors rare encounters with significant artworks.