Art News: HENI and Damien Hirst, his 2026 releases and what happens after they close

HENI is the London publisher behind Damien Hirst's prints, tapestries and many of his recent paintings. It also works with Peter Doig, Invader, Shepard Fairey, Gerhard Richter and the estates of other artists, but Hirst is the artist it is best known for, and 2026 has been one of its busiest years with him.

How HENI works

HENI sells through short release windows, usually a week or two. Prints go out under HENI Editions, and original paintings under HENI Primary, mostly by application so that works are spread across many buyers rather than going to whoever clicks first. Each release is shown for free at HENI Gallery in Soho while the window is open.

Some editions are fixed in advance. Others are limited by demand, so the number made is only known once the window has closed. Many HENI Hirst prints are signed and numbered on a label on the back rather than in pencil on the front.

Hirst's HENI releases in 2026

• The Civilisation Watercolours, January. Original watercolours revisiting his Civilisation Paintings, shown at HENI Gallery from 15 to 25 January and offered by application until 26 January.
• The Emotions, June. Nine prints after his Jacaranda paintings, an offshoot of the Cherry Blossoms, with titles such as Love, Joy, Serenity and Gratitude. The window ran from 11 to 22 June, and the edition size was set by demand.
• Troubled Waters, September. One print by Hirst, Shepard Fairey and Invader, made for their Triple Trouble exhibition at Newport Street Gallery, in an edition of 200 plus 30 artist's proofs.
• Depictions, September. Butterfly paintings in five sizes, each titled after the species at its centre and hand signed on the back, by application from 17 to 30 September.
• American Dream, October. A collaboration with Eminem: medicine cabinets holding his twelve albums on vinyl, spin paintings of the album covers, and twelve prints after them, shown from 2 to 19 October.

The Currency, five years on

HENI's best known Hirst project is The Currency, launched in 2021: 10,000 unique paintings on paper, each paired with an NFT. Owners had until July 2022 to choose one or the other. 5,149 chose the painting and 4,851 kept the NFT, and the paintings behind those NFTs were burned at Newport Street Gallery that autumn.

After the window closes

When a release closes, the secondary market is the only place to buy. HENI runs its own private sales service for past releases, the auction houses include HENI prints in their prints and multiples sales, and dealers and advisors place them privately.

For an owner the questions are always the same: which title and edition it is, how large the edition turned out to be, where it is signed, and whether the HENI paperwork is still with it. We have listed every Hirst HENI series and title, from The Virtues and The Empresses to Faneel and the American Dream prints, on selling a Damien Hirst HENI print. There are pages for Peter Doig and Invader too, and an overview at selling HENI prints.

If you own a HENI print and are thinking of selling, send photographs of the front, the back and the paperwork for a no obligation estimate.

Cover: Vincent van Gogh, Almond Blossom, 1890, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.