January 18, 2023 8.30 am This story is over 15 months old

Legendary painter bringing exhibition with Stella McCartney portrait to Lincoln

David Remfry returns to the city where he got his honorary doctorate
Watercolour works by legendary painter David Remfry will be available to see at a free exhibition in Lincoln. | Photo: Dancers, 2001, David Remfry, 2001. Courtesy of the artist. Photograph by Beth Philips.
By Local Democracy Reporter

The works of acclaimed British painter David Remfry, including portraits of the likes of Stella McCartney and Alan Cumming, will be part of a new exhibition at Lincoln’s Usher Gallery later this month.

David Remfry: A Moment Captured is a new exhibition celebrating watercolour works of the renowned and famous British painter – displaying portraits of famous faces he met along the way.

Remfry, 80, studied at Hull College of Art in the late 50s and early 60s, rising through the art ranks to eventually mix in very well-known circles during his stint living at the Chelsea Hotel in New York.

It was in these Chelsea Hotel spells of the 1980s and 2000s where he could create portraits of the likes of Dame Zandra Rhodes, actor Alan Cumming and legendary fashion designer Stella McCartney.

His years of experience will now be brought to the Usher Gallery on Danes Terrace in Lincoln, in the form of a free exhibition running from January 28 until May 1.

| Photo: Anna, David Remfry, 1988. Courtesy of the artist. Photograph by Marcus Leith.

The exhibition will celebrate scale, shade and movement in David’s world of watercolour, where he has continually pushed the envelope and challenged the norms of what to expect from art.

It will contain a mixture of crafted portraits and bright scene paintings in large forms with vibrant colours and distinctive touches that make the pieces attributable to Remfry.

The coup of David Remfry in Lincoln is a large one, but also a full circle moment as he returns to the city where he received his honorary doctorate in 2007.

He is an instantly recognisable figure in the art world, and he will this year coordinate the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition once his work is done here in Lincoln.

Jenny Gleadell, exhibitions officer at the Usher Gallery, said: “David Remfry is a fascinating artist, and that is reflected in this unique collection of his work. This exhibition is also a homecoming of sorts.

“While Remfry has spent most of his career in London and New York, he made his first surreptitious sketches of dancers in the Locarno night club in Hull while he was at art school there. He was then invited to receive an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from our city’s very own University of Lincoln.

“Where better to display this celebrated artist’s work than close by to where his creative journey began.”