Phoebe Saatchi Yates, daughter of noted collector Charles Saatchi, has announced plans to open a 10,000-square-foot gallery in London that will exhibit the work of “unknown” and “unseen” artists. The gallery is slated to open October 15 in the city’s tony Mayfair district, home to such blue-chip galleries as Gagosian, Pace, and Hauser & Wirth.

Saatchi Yates will co-run the gallery with her husband, Arthur Yates, with whom she has been working on the project for three years. In focusing on emerging artists, Saatchi Yates is following in the footsteps of her father, a former advertising executive, who is most widely known for bringing to public attention the work of the Young British Artists, or YBAS, whose ranks include Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. The elder Saatchi purchased the groundbreaking work of these now-famous artists in the early 1990s, while most of them were still students.

Charles Saatchi, who last year informally stepped away from running his own legendary Sloane Square gallery, will lend a hand in the endeavor. “My dad’s role has been to completely guide us, as he has with everything my whole life,” said Saatchi Yates. “He has helped us build the program and he has trained us up on all the elements of what the art world has been before, so we can break all those rules.”

The inaugural exhibition will feature the work of Swiss artist Pascal Sender. Wisely, in light of England’s recently announced restrictions following a resurgence in the country of Covid-19 infections, Sender has created an app via which viewers may experience the works remotely.

Despite the pandemic, Saatchi Yates is approaching the gallery’s opening with a positive outlook. “What we’re trying to do with the gallery is start something that’s hopeful and a new way of looking at things,” she said. “It’s quite nice in a way to be doing something really positive after the strangest year we ever experienced.”