Music icons The Kinks changed the face of music around the world. But their story started with Ray and Dave Davies; two brothers playing music in their parents’ North London living room.
Over 60 years on from The Kinks forming, Ray and Dave Davies are uniting for an art exhibition in collaboration with painter Christian Furr at the Gibson Garage London, from 24 July – 6 September 2026
When Dave Davies saw the finished works for the first time, he was moved to tears and immediately began painting on them himself.
Before forming The Kinks, Ray Davis studied painting at Hornsey College of Art and Dave has painted for many years, making visual art part of their creativity from the beginning.
The ‘Brothers’ exhibition sees Christian Furr reimagine a passport photobooth photograph of the brothers together taken in East Finchley, North London in 1968 as new, original paintings.
Dave Davies says: “It was a magic moment when we crammed into the photobooth all those years ago. Christian Furr has done a wonderful job in developing the image into special artworks. We hope people love these as much as we do.”
Ray Davies adds: “Over the years it’s been amazing to see creative people take our music and make something of their own. Christian Furr has done just that. It’s great to be doing something new with Dave, and seeing these paintings and the original passport photobooth picture again brings back a lot of memories.”
Christian Furr recalls creating the paintings: “I was thinking about Matisse, punk, pop art, luminosity, and keeping that colour as bright as possible, because that to me is what I see when I listen to The Kinks.”
For more on the Gibson Garage, visit: https://www.gibson.com/pages/gibson-garage-london
Images courtesy of Gibson.
