The Art of Dopamine
I walked out of the school gates and there was my new stepdad shouting my name. He was waving out of the top of one of those campervans with the striped fabric push-up roof. I googled it later - a dormobile. I can’t remember whether it was a VW or not. I was fourteen years old at the time.
The girls’ school in Birmingham was venomous. The plus-size girl sat on me and bounced. She said she was going to break my bones. I hated that school.
So, when you are with a group of girls that might eat you alive at any minute, what do you do? You walk straight past and get on the bus.
It’s called survival.
Joanna McPhillips’ parents shopped at M&S and had electric curtains and a new car. A new, normal, shiny car. A BMW. How I wished we had a sparkly set of wheels. I could have been his passenger princess.
Fast forward forty years and I am sitting in The Body Shop HQ in a meeting. Somewhere between the dormobile and the boardroom, I learned what people mean by newness. Customers need “newness.” What do we have that is new this month, something we can shout about? Not much, if I’m honest, but that’s another story.
Is it novelty and curiosity, boredom management, social conditioning or something else? I know that every time I go to a new gallery or exhibition, I get a dopamine hit. I definitely crave that feeling, over and over.
Today, I was at Saatchi Yates looking at Slawn’s studio. It’s set up inside the gallery, and if you pop in at the right time, you can see him painting. Slawn is twenty-five years old. He must be a newborn. He’s definitely not an old master, that’s the dormobile. He intersects street art with abstract expressionism. The space is intimate but expansive, where raw creativity meets art in mid-motion.
Slawn’s Studio - Saatchi Yates Gallery
These are some of the places I’ll get my hit in 2026:
Seurat and the Sea — The Courtauld Gallery (13 February – 17 May)
Seurat died at a early age of 31, so to bring together 27 paintings that were created over five summers in Nothern France is a unquie opportunity.
Tracey Emin: Second Life — Tate (27 February – 31 August)
Dame Tracey Emin is one of the most important contempory artist of her generation. the exhibition celebrates her raw confessional approach.
Frida Kahlo: The Making of an Icon — Tate Modern (25 June – 3 January)
A fearless revolutionary artist the Tate have curated garments, jewellery and photographs.
Anish Kapoor - Hayward Gallery (16 June – 18 October)
Large-scale mirrored steel sculptures, placed on the Hayward’s outdoor terraces, will further immerse us in a perceptual journey that combines discovery and disorientation.
These days, I have no desire for a new car. I’d take a Basquiat over a Birkin. I also reckon Slawn would think me and my stepdad were pretty cool if we turned up at Saatchi Yates in a dormobile. And as for the girl from school, I reckon she drives a Nissan Juke or a Minger.
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Have a great day.
Jules
*Cover photo: Slawn’s Studio - Saatchi Yates