Arts Ahead: What's On 10-16 January

Marianela Nunez and Thiago Soaresin in Romeo and Juliet. Photo by Dee Conway

January's cultural opening start properly this week, with ballet, Damien Hirst, Quentin Blake and more. Here are the highlights on londonist. Plus a lot of last-chance-to-see (bye bye, Jerusalem, I'll miss you!) shows, so make sure you don't miss out.

For me, it's yoga; a trip to The Ladykillers; possibly a night at the Southwark Playhouse; and writing, writing, writing; and hopefully some more writing...

See Damien Hirst's Spot Paintings For Free at the Gagosian Galleries

Damien Hirst Controlled Substance Key Painting, 1994 Household gloss on canvas 48 x 48 inches 121.9 x 121.9 cm Photographed by Prudence Cuming Associates © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2011 Courtesy Gagosian Gallery

From Thursday, you can get a look at Damien Hirst's Spot Paintings for free.

They're going on display at the two Gagosian Galleries in London, as well as at all the other Gagosians (Gagosii?) around the world. (That's New York, Paris, Los Angeles, Rome, Athens, Geneva, and Hong Kong, in case you were wondering.)

Hirst didn't make them himself: these are some of the very works that have caused David Hockney to declare of his own exhibition at the Royal Academy: "all the works were made by the artist himself, personally."

Hirst, on the other hand, used assistants to make his Spot Paintings, saying, "I couldn’t be fucking arsed doing it".

Visit the Gagosian Galleries between now and February to see what the fuss is about, and get in on Hirstmania early: later in the year, Tate Modern is holding a blockbuster Hirst show which'll cost you about £14 to see.

Read my original Damien Hirst post on londonist