Levi

This is a full-length portrait of Levi, the one-time jazz dancing star, who performed at The Vox in Brixton's Brighton Terrace. Levi lived in Peckham and first met the artist Oscar Romp in Camden Lock in the early 1990s. He posed for his portrait at Romp's house and is portrayed here wearing a double-breasted jacket, black shoes with white spats, a roll-neck jumper and earrings.

The portrait was completed just before The Vox abandoned its Sunday jazz funk night in 1993, having lost its audience to the Blue Note in Shoreditch's Hoxton Square. Levi later emigrated to Amsterdam to become a professional dancer.

Romp has had a long interest in dancers as a subject and drew at Northern Soul all-nighters and London's jazz fusion clubs during the 1980s. The artist also specialises in murals and his work has appeared in several London hospitals.