Some exhibitions feel like events, others feel like homecomings. Ronnie Wood: The Jimi Hendrix Portraits manages to be both, a vivid collision of memory, music, and art unfolding inside the very walls where Hendrix once tuned up, hung out, and felt most himself.
From September 30, 2026 to April 11, 2027, Handel Hendrix House in Mayfair will unveil two brand‑new, never‑before‑seen portraits of Jimi Hendrix painted by Ronnie Wood, alongside a selection of Wood’s much‑loved Hendrix works. For the first time, these images will hang inside Hendrix’s own flat at 23 Brook Street, the place he famously described as the only home where he ever felt truly settled.
It’s hard to imagine a more charged setting — a guitarist painting another guitarist, decades later, inside the room where their friendship once sparked.
Wood remembers Hendrix not as the mythic guitar deity, but as the quiet, sweet man who arrived in London in 1966 “totally unknown.” They shared PP Arnold’s Holland Park flat for a short, chaotic stretch — Hendrix, Wood, and a Basset Hound named Loopy — before Hendrix’s explosive early shows at places like the Bag O’ Nails rewrote the rules of guitar music.
One of Wood’s new portraits captures that exact moment: Hendrix on stage, incandescent, reshaping what a guitar could be. “Jimi’s immense & unique talent took guitar playing to another planet,” Wood says. “I hope the paintings capture all that and more.”
There’s something deeply compelling about Wood’s perspective. He didn’t just admire Hendrix — he witnessed him. Jammed with him. Lived with him. Watched him transform from a quiet newcomer to a generational force.
Handel Hendrix House has become one of London’s most quietly fascinating cultural spaces — a dual museum preserving the homes of two musical giants separated by centuries but united by creative fire.
Handel’s restored 18th‑century rooms now sit alongside Hendrix’s lovingly recreated 1968 flat, complete with the stairs George Harrison once had to step over a passed‑out visitor to descend. The museum’s recent £3 million restoration has opened up Handel’s full house for the first time, adding new exhibitions, historic rooms, and a mixed‑reality experience exploring the writing of Messiah.
Against this backdrop, Wood’s portraits feel like a bridge — connecting Hendrix’s private world with the public imagination, and linking two eras of musical revolution under one roof.
As museum director Simon Daniels puts it, Wood’s work “offers a truly personal tribute to the legend he knew.” And seeing these portraits in Hendrix’s own home adds a layer of intimacy no gallery could replicate.
Before he became a Rolling Stone, Wood was an art student at Ealing Art College, sketching long before he was shredding. His paintings have travelled the world, capturing bandmates, icons, and the cultural figures who crossed his path.
On Desert Island Discs last year, he chose art materials as his luxury item — a reminder that painting isn’t a side project for Wood. It’s a parallel career, a second language.
His Hendrix portraits feel like the culmination of both worlds: the musician who knew Hendrix’s sound, and the artist who can translate that sound into colour, movement, and memory.
There’s a rare electricity in seeing art hung in the place where its subject once lived. Hendrix’s Brook Street flat isn’t a shrine — it’s a lived‑in space, restored with care, filled with stories, and still humming with the energy of the 60s London scene.
Placing Wood’s portraits here turns the exhibition into something more than a display. It becomes a conversation between past and present — between two musicians who shaped each other, and between the fans who continue to keep Hendrix’s legacy alive.
This is one of those exhibitions that feels essential: a chance to stand inside Hendrix’s home and see him through the eyes of someone who knew him before the world did.
Exhibition Details
Ronnie Wood: The Jimi Hendrix Portraits, Handel Hendrix House, 23 Brook Street, Mayfair
30 September 2026 – 11 April 2027
Entry included with museum admission (£14.50 adults / £10.50 students / free under 12s)
Nearest Tube: Bond Street
Tickets: handelhendrix.org
