The Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art, opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985 in order to show his sizeable (and changing) collection to the public. It has occupied different premises, first in North London, then the South Bank by the River Thames and Chelsea (opening to the public in 2007). Saatchi's collection, and hence the gallery's shows, have had distinct phases, starting with US artists and minimalism, moving on to the Damien Hirst-led Young British Artists, followed by shows purely of painting and more recently promoting once again art from America in an exhibition entitled USA Today at the Royal Academy in London.
The gallery has been a major — if not the major — influence on art in Britain since its opening. It has also had a history of media controversy, which it has courted, and has had extremes of critical reaction. Many artists shown at the gallery are unknown not only to the general public but also to the commercial art world: showing at the gallery has provided a springboard to launch careers.

Boundary Road
In April 2003, the gallery moved to County Hall, the Greater London Council's former headquarters on the South Bank, occupying 40,000 ft² (3,700 m²) of the ground floor. There were 1,000 guests at the launch, which included a "nude happening" of 200 naked people staged by artist Spencer Tunick.
The opening exhibition included a retrospective by Damien Hirst, who was, however, not involved with it, having previously fallen out with Saatchi. As well as work by other YBAs, such as Jake and Dinos Chapman and Tracey Emin, there was the inclusion of some longer established artists including John Bratby, Paula Rego and Patrick Caulfield.
In 2004, Saatchi's recent acquisitions (including Stella Vine) were featured in New Blood, a show of mostly little-known artists working in a variety of media, including installation and machinery. It received a hostile critical reception, which caused Saatchi to speak out angrily and uncharacteristically against the critics. [1]
On 24 May 2004, a fire in the Momart storage warehouse destroyed many works from the collection, including the major Tracey Emin work Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–95 ("the tent"), and Jake and Dinos Chapman's tableau Hell. Saatchi was reported to be distraught at the loss. One art insurance specialist valued the lost work at £50m.
In 2005, Saatchi showed a major change of direction with the announcement of a year-long, three-part series (subsequently extended to two years and seven-part), The Triumph of Painting. The opening exhibition focused on a number of already established European painters, including Marlene Dumas, Martin Kippenberger, Luc Tuymans and Peter Doig, who had not previously received such significant exposure in the UK. Future shows in the series are scheduled to introduce Britain to young painters from America like Dana Schutz and Germans such as Matthias Weischer, as well as Saatchi's choice of up and coming British talent.
At the same time, Saatchi sold works from his YBA collection, beginning in December 2004 with Hirst's iconic shark for nearly £7 million (he had bought it for £50,000 in 1991), and was dismissive of the historic longevity of the YBAs (apart from Hirst).
The gallery's tenancy of County Hall had ongoing difficulties with Makoto Okamoto, London branch manager of the owners, who Saatchi complained had kicked artworks and sealed off the disabled toilets[2].On September 27, 2005 the gallery announced they would be moving to new premises. On October 7, 2005 a court case began against the gallery, brought by County Hall landlords, Cadogan Leisure Investments, and owners Shirayama Shokusan Co Ltd, for alleged breach of conditions, including a two-for-one ticket offer in Time Out magazine and exhibition of work in unauthorised areas. The judgement went against the gallery, who were forced to relinquish the premises, though the gallery had already announced it was moving to take on the entire Duke of York's HQ building in Chelsea. There is currently a halt to London shows while these new premises are being prepared. A selection from The Triumph of Painting was exhibited in Leeds Art Gallery and new American art at the Royal Academy in London.

County Hall
In 2006, during the period in limbo between premises, the Saatchi Gallery website began an open-access section, the most well-known aspect of which is called Your Gallery[3], where artists can upload up to 8 works of art and a biography onto their own page. Over 20,000 artists have done so, and the site receives an estimated 3.5 million hits a day. In October 2006 the Saatchi Gallery in association with the Guardian newspaper opened the first ever reader-curated exhibition, showing the work of 10 artists registered on Your Gallery. In November the Saatchi Gallery launched a new site within Your Gallery exclusively for art students called Stuart[4]. Art students from all over the world can have their own home pages with images of their art, photos, lists of their favourite artists, books, films and television shows, and links to their friends' home pages. The site also allows students to chat online with each other, enabling art students across the globe to talk and exchange ideas about their art work. There are other spaces on Your Gallery for a forum, a daily art magazine, blogs, videos and for meeting new people.

"Your Gallery" on Saatchi website
The gallery is currently refurbishing a 50,000 square foot space in the Duke of York's HQ building on Kings Road, London, near to Sloane Square. A virtual tour is available on the gallery website and shows spacious rooms in classic "white wall" gallery style.

Chelsea

At County Hall the gallery received 600,000 visitors a year.
There have been over 1,000 school visits. Controversy

Artists shown at the Saatchi Gallery

Donald Judd
Brice Marden
Cy Twombly
Andy Warhol
Carl Andre
Sol Lewitt
Robert Ryman
Frank Stella
Dan Flavin
Anselm Kiefer
Richard Serra
Jeff Koons
Robert Gober
Philip Taaffe
Carroll Dunham
Leon Golub
Philip Guston
Sigmar Polke
Robert Mangold
Bruce Nauman
Leon Kossoff
Frank Auerbach
Lucian Freud
Richard Artschwager
Andreas Serrano
Cindy Sherman
Damien Hirst
Rachel Whiteread
Sarah Lucas
Marc Quinn
Jenny Saville
Paula Rego
Gavin Turk
Glenn Brown
Gary Hume
Janine Antoni
Tony Oursler
Richard Prince
Charles Ray
Kiki Smith
Stephan Balkenhol
Duane Hanson
Andreas Gursky
Martin Honert
Thomas Ruff
Thomas Schütte
David Salle
Jessica Stockholder
Terry Winters
John Currin
Tom Friedman
Josiah McElheny
Laura Owens
Elizabeth Peyton
Lisa Yuskavage
Alex Katz
Martin Maloney
Dexter Dalwood
Ron Mueck
Cecily Brown
Noble and Webster
Michael Raedecker
Boris Mikhailov Boundary Road

Damien Hirst
The Chapman Brothers
New Blood
Galleon & Other Stories
The Triumph of Painting County Hall
forthcoming:

The Triumph of Painting See also

Sarah Kent, "Shark Infested Waters: The Saatchi Collection of British Art in the 90s", Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd, 2003, ISBN 0-85667-584-9.
Rita Hatton and John A. Walker, "Supercollector, a Critique of Charles Saatchi", The Institute of Artology, 3rd edition 2005, paperback, ISBN 0-9545702-2-7
USA Today
The Triumph Of Painting
The Triumph Of Painting, Supplementary Volume
The Triumph Of Painting, Supplementary Volume
100 The Work That Changed British Art
Hell, Jake & Dinos Chapman
Paula Rego
Young Americans
Stephan Balkenhol
Fiona Rae & Gary Hume
Duane Hanson
Shark Infested Waters, The Saatchi Collection Of British Art In The 90's
Young German Artists 2
Sensation
Alex Katz: 25 Years Of Painting
Young Americans 2
Neurotic Realism
Eurovision
Ant Noises 1
Ant Noises 2
The Arts Council Gift
I Am A Camera
New Labour
Young British Art
Saatchi Decade
Boris Mikhailov: Case History
Damien Hirst