The Congregation

The Congregation is a new mural artwork for Brixton Underground station by artist Rudy Loewe. The work will be unveiled on 20 November 2025 and will be on view for a year.

Loewe is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, drawing, and sculpture. Their work invites and amplifies those voices suppressed by dominant retellings of history, thereby making space for different forms of knowledge. It channels the narrative energy of comics and the clarity of illustration by combining text and image with the use of vivid colour.

The Congregation honours Brixton’s history as a place of resistance and community gathering, particularly for London’s Black communities. The work features twenty scenes celebrating the figures and history of the local area. Loewe interweaves stories from archival research and interviews, visualising the rich, sensorial experience of Brixton. With The Congregation, Loewe offers an alternative entry point into Brixton as a place that has been a focal point for Black communities over the last 75 years.

Loewe is the ninth artist in the series of commissions at Brixton Tube station. The Congregation follows artworks by artists including Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Joy Labinjo, Denzil Forrester and Claudette Johnson. Initiated in 2018, the programme invites artists to respond to the diverse narratives of the area, in recognition of the local murals painted in Brixton in the 1980s.

Map Projections

An artwork by Agnes Denes, a leading pioneer of the environmental art movement, features on the cover of the 41^st Pocket Tube map, which launched on 12 June 2025 on posters across the city. Commissioned by Art on the Underground in the organisation’s 25th anniversary year, the 41st Tube Map Cover continues Denes’s exploration of environmental and social issues and the challenges of global survival.

Denes’s Map Projections is a digital drawing that presents an alternate perception of space and time by projecting a section of the globe onto a cube rather than a sphere. It renders a 3D form into a 2D artwork by a process called isometric projection, often used in technical sketches, and references Denes’s renowned 1970s series, Isometric Systems in Isotropic Space – Map Projections, which took the familiar form of the globe and distorted it into different shapes, including The Hotdog, The Pyramid and The Snail. The outline of the continents in the current and previous works precisely follow this distortion.

The new form of the globe is an “electrified” rendering, with glowing lines illuminated against a pitch-black background. This transformation of the globe into a distorted, electrified form is similar to the way that the Tube map turns the London transport network into a navigable diagram.

Throughout her career, Denes’s scientifically-based drawings, prints and architectural designs have combined science, mathematics, philosophy and environmentalism. Her pioneering environmental art, including Wheatfield – A Confrontation (1982), a two-acre field of wheat planted and harvested in downtown Manhattan, New York, is one of many monumental works that have drawn attention to global ecological disaster and demonstrate Denes’s role in transforming the Land Art movement towards social action.

Map Projections will be printed on the cover of pocket Tube maps from early July. The maps will be available for free at all TfL stations, and a poster with the design is now displayed across the network, offering a preview.

Saved by the Whale's Tail, Saved by Art

Art on the Underground Staff Writer in Residence 2024 at St James's Park

The Angels of History Speak is the second work from Art on the Underground’s 2024/2025 Writer in Residence Kristel Tracey. Inspired by the ‘Angels of History’, a permanent work by Rosie Hastings and Hannah Quinlan, above the stairs to and from the platforms at the Broadway entrance of St James’s Park station.

The Angels of History Speak is installed on the platform of St James’s Park Underground station as an artwork poster, launched 22 April 2025 and on view for one year.

Kristel Tracey responds to Hastings and Quinlan’s work, drawing a line between the permanent artwork, Paul Klee’s painting ‘Angelus Novus’ from just over a century before and Walter Benjamin’s interpretation of that work, where he described the painting as an image of the ‘angel of history’. In this offering, Kristel imagines the voice of Walter Benjamin’s ‘angel of history’ speaking to us, the audience.

Kristel is a London based writer, mother and TfL’s Head of Stakeholder Advocacy and Engagement. Published in both print and digital formats over the years, Kristel’s writing style ranges from short stories, to think pieces and poetry. She is often inspired to write about the world around her, thinking about how to make the reader reflect on how to enjoy the beauty of it and make it better for everyone.

The Art on the Underground Writer in Residence is a creative opportunity for a TfL staff member to develop their writing by working with TfL’s contemporary art programme Art on the Underground over a period of six months.

The Writer in Residence programme aims to highlight and amplify the creative voices within TfL, creating engaging responses to Art on the Underground’s ongoing programme.

THE ANGELS OF HISTORY SPEAK

We have grown weary of the ruin, tired of this infinite loop; we are propelled forward by the winds of your progress, yet we watch the same mistakes repeated.

Can we stop for a moment to rest our wings? May we take some time to tend to our hearts which have grown cynical, yet still yearn to be heard?

Stay with us for a moment, we do not have long. We have learnt the hard way that time waits for no one.

*

Our ears echo with the cries of the unheard, on whom this ‘progress’ is built. Will you slow down enough to hear them too? Your monuments and history books won’t remember them, but we bear witness. We try to collect fragments from the ashes, ancient knowledge of the unheard left scattered; fragments which you could use to cultivate something else.

What would a future look like that treated all living things as sacred? Our grief does not differentiate or care for your hierarchies. What if all life was seen as worthy of protection for its connection to other living things on this beautiful, broken planet?

One life does not destroy another without disfiguring itself.

*

Halls and walls of power may fall. What of the power that is contained within your own flesh and bones? What wonders humans have created in the name of love! What if you planted seeds of creation on the ruins of false idols, that need not be watered by the spilling of blood?

We cannot hold off the winds any longer, and you must be on your way. We leave you with this:

The future is yet to be written – if you were holding the pen, what would it be?

– Art on the Underground 2025 Staff Writer in Residence Kristel Tracey

A Little Slice of Paradise

In 2023, Art on the Underground presented a new artwork for the 39^th pocket Tube map cover by leading British artist Joy Gregory.

Titled A Little Slice of Paradise and inspired by Transport for London’s 100-year history of staff cultivated station gardens, Joy Gregory created a rich photographic collage for the cover of the December 2023 pocket Tube map.

Renowned for her influence on British feminist photography and social justice movements, Gregory uses photographic media to re-illuminate forgotten cultural, historical and political narratives. As a British artist of Jamaican heritage Gregory’s practice often explores on the relationship between colonialism and identity and plant knowledge.

Since 1910, Transport for London has run an annual competition called ‘In Bloom’, which recognises staff for their efforts cultivating gardens in unlikely station environments.

Inspired by TfL’s gardens, Gregory wanted to create a Tube map cover for the people who will experience the artwork most frequently – station staff.  A Little Slice of Paradise pays tribute to staff and their gardens.

The title was inspired by a conversation Gregory had with gardener and Customer Service Manager, Tony Samuel, who described the garden he and his colleagues had created at Morden station as ‘a little slice of paradise’.

The artwork features a cyanotype imprint of chickweed grown in station gardens digitally collaged with photographs of flowers including camellias, dahlias, daisies, and nastursiums in station gardens. Gregory often uses camera-less photographic techniques such as cyanotypes, which captures the imprint of an object laid on top of light sensitive photographic paper in blue hues. The cyanotype was notably used by some of the earliest known women photographers to document botanical objects at a time when women were discouraged from engaging with the sciences. In her practice, Gregory draws on this feminist history using the cyanotype to re-illuminate and reframe overlooked narratives about identity, race, gender and social history which underscore contemporary society.

Evocative of the rich palette of Dutch Old Master flower paintings and the histories of photography, Gregory’s artwork offered customers a reminder of the station gardens to carry with them as they travel through the city.

Joy Gregory, Artist said: “The most beautiful and rewarding part of working on this commission was seeing the positive impact these gardens had on the lives of people using the transportation system, as well as the pleasure it conveyed to the creators of these enchanting spaces and their colleagues.”

Justine Simons OBE, Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries, said: “Our Tube stations are not just transport hubs, they are icons of design and each one has something that makes it special. Cultivated gardens on London’s transport network are part of that rich tapestry and I want to thank artist Joy Gregory for merging past and present floral designs in the new pocket Tube map cover.

“It is a wonderful daily reminder for all of us who travel on the Tube network of the effort and dedication TfL staff have put into maintaining these magnificent gardens. Thank you for making our commute more enjoyable, helping us build a greener and better London for all.”

Eleanor Pinfield, TfL’s Head of Art on the Underground, said: “Gregory has turned a spotlight on a fascinating part of TfL’s history and a vibrant part of its contemporary life. Bringing the botanical to the front of the pocket Tube map is a fitting tribute to TfL staff who nurture plants year-round. This new artwork is a poignant reminder of the care that staff bring to the spaces we use every day as we travel.”

2024 Programme Announcement

Art on the Underground’s programme for 2024 comprises major new works from six contemporary artists. Since the early Twentieth century, artists, designers and architects have been at the forefront of London Underground’s presence in the city. Working with six contemporary artists across the year, Art on the Underground’s commissions consider this history and the collective experience of travel: through the stations themselves and the communities around them. The 2024 programme continues Art on the Underground’s commitment to creating critical frameworks for meaningful and expansive conversations and outcomes with artists, publics and public space.

The 2024 programme features new commissions and collaborative audio works that intervene at St James’s Park at 55 Broadway, London Underground’s historic headquarters, interrogate the organisation’s history of moquette fabric design, as well as new commissions at Brixton and at Heathrow. In its breadth and presence across London, the 2024 programme reflects on the history of London Underground whilst giving voice to the pluralism and movement of the city today.

Art on the Underground’s 2024 programme features major commissions situated across London including:

• British artist Joy Gregory will expand on her photographic artwork for the 39th pocket Tube map cover with a series of artworks created in dialogue with the local community for Heathrow Terminal 4 station in July.
• London and Beirut-based artist Joe Namy will produce a new sound work with the Mayor of London’s Culture and Community Spaces at Risk programme, bringing a new audio work to the London Underground network in July.
• British artist Rita Keegan will develop a new commission exploring the history of moquette design for the pocket Tube map in August.
• British artist duo Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings will create a major permanent mosaic work at historic St James’s Park station in October.
• Leading British artist Claudette Johnson will create a new mural artwork at Brixton station in November.

Art on the Underground Staff Writer in Residence 2023

Art on the Underground Staff Writer in Residence 2023.

‘DESCEND and DISSENT’ is the first release from the Art on the Underground Writer in Residence Anthony Okolie. Inspired by Declaration of Independence by Barby Asante which launched in September 2023 with a performance at Stratford station.

The Art on the Underground Writer in Residence is a programme for a TfL staff member to develop their writing by working with Art on the Underground.

The Writer in Residence programme will highlight and amplify the creative voices within TfL, creating engaging responses to Art on the Underground artists and artworks throughout 2023.

Anthony said: As a captivated spectator of Barby Asante’s Declaration of Independence performance, I was quite simply overwhelmed with inspiration.

The strong message invoked a powerful image of my ascendants sharing their collective anguish on the streets I proudly call home.

The words and atmosphere conjured by the performance resonated with me, and I also detected a distinct tone of triumph that stirred my creativity. 

As times have changed, the voices of the oppressed has grown louder. Wisdom and understanding have broken down some of the social barriers that stand between equality and diversity.

My poem is a reflection and representation of the hope for a better world that never died.

DESCEND and DISSENT

Sitting under the sun’s ray, a hopeful day,

While softly, my doubts are cast away;

One-by-one they fall, surely but slow,

Tears don’t flow like a weeping willow;

Who will take heed of my silent cry?

Who else if not me, myself or I?

Before it was written it was perceived as a vision,

An elaborate concept of unified division,

They don’t want to listen so they can never see,

Live in a prison or choose to be free,

We spend our lives blind to inevitability,

Accepting inequalities when they say it’s a democracy,

They bar the horizon they can approach at a meander;

Despite what you read, it’s all propaganda,

When will you breathe? Just seek to find the answer,

The phoenix can rise without a pyromancer,

Oh, my faith can still transcend,

And so, I cannot lose before I ascend,

The time is still now, where brave souls make amends,

Collectively bargained between enemies and friends.

Rebirth of a Nation

Art on the Underground is pleased to present a new artwork by Jem Perucchini at Brixton Underground station from November 2023, marking the Italian artist’s first major commission.

Titled Rebirth of a Nation, the large-scale public artwork will be on view for a year and is the latest in a series of commissions for the station, following on from the work of artists including Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Joy Labinjo. Initiated in 2018, the programme invites artists to respond to the diverse narratives of the area, in recognition of the local murals painted in Brixton in the 1980s.

Born in Ethiopia but based in Italy since childhood, Perucchini is powerfully influenced by Italian art history. Conjuring the Early Renaissance with his distinctive, richly detailed painting style, his new work for Brixton station captures ethereal figures with luminous light. The composition is an allegorical vision in which the past, embodied by a female figure, and the future, her mirror image, meet. Flanked by two men holding spears, the women are distinguished by their sumptuously decorated clothes. One clasps a purple orb; historically a symbol of sovereign power in painting iconography. The elaborately detailed fabrics are evocative of African wax cloth, a material interwoven with the skill, artistry and identities of the diverse African diaspora. Bathed in the rays of a rising orange sun, the four figures inhabit an otherworldly environment of irregular compositional perspective, imbued with warm hues and a meditational quality that is evocative of a Renaissance altarpiece.

For this new work Perucchini maintains a strong connection to his practice, focussing on the active role of Western art history in the construction of archetypes. Certain representative figures dominate the art historical canon, and traditionally hold distinct positions in the social and symbolic hierarchy. Mining for overlooked narratives, Perucchini’s compositions are both familiar and enigmatic, and reimagine how the fantasies of the past can impact on the realities of the present.

This work’s inspiration is drawn from the Ivory Bangle Lady, the name given to the occupant of an ancient grave dated to around the 4th century. The Ivory Bangle Lady was of North African origin; her grave was found in York. The stone grave contained rare, imported objects and valuable jewellery, one of which was an elephant ivory bangle. These objects indicate that she was amongst the richest inhabitants of the region and enjoyed a high social status. Other archaeological finds also support the theory that African people had a place in the upper echelons of Roman society, suggesting that early Britain may have been more ethnically diverse than mainstream history suggests. Perucchini’s reference to this rich cultural past underscores how history can be seen and interpreted from multiple viewpoints and charges the work with questions about the hierarchy of narratives, the construction of national identity and how some histories are privileged, whilst others are erased.

Drawing from Brixton, one of London’s most distinctive areas, Perucchini’s work responds to an environment shaped by its diverse residents and their histories. As a nucleus for Black British history, the area has been shaped by recent social and political movements. In post-war London many West Indian immigrants settled in Brixton – almost a third who travelled on the Empire Windrush made it their home – and it quickly became a centre for the Black community. Perucchini’s work challenges the notion that Black British history stretches no further back than the 20th Century, celebrating the long lineage of Black Britons who came before and pointing towards an equally glorious future, set within a divine and timeless world.

Two new Labyrinth artworks by Mark Wallinger

To mark the 10-year anniversary of Mark Wallinger’s city-wide artwork, the artist has created two new Labyrinth artworks for Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station on the Northern line.

In 2013, Mark Wallinger’s Labyrinth was launched – 270 unique works, one for each of the 270 stations on the London Underground network. Two new stations joined the London Underground network in September 2021 with the opening of the extension of the Northern line at Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station. To mark the 10-year anniversary of Labyrinth, Wallinger has created two new unique Labyrinth artworks for these stations.

Inspired by the language of the symbols of London Underground, Wallinger chose the ancient symbol of the Labyrinth, with its single path, as the theme of the expansive work. Each London Underground station has its own unique Labyrinth design, emblazoned in black and white on a single 60cm² enamel panel, representing the journey through the network taken by millions of individuals each year. The works are installed in prominent positions so that they are visible to these passengers, and alongside the unique Labyrinth design, each has a number marked out of 270, the number of London Underground stations in 2013.

The original numbering referred to the tube challenge route – the optimum route to pass through all stations on the Underground network in the fastest possible time – as set when the work was fabricated. Mirroring the branching of the Northern line from Kennington to form the extension of the Northern line the two new designs are numerically linked to Kennington’s Labyrinth – numbered 110 / 270. The new stations are numbered 110a/270 and 110b/270.

Nine Elms (110a) is based on the embossed family of labyrinths, with nine concentric circles to hint at the station’s name. Battersea Power Station (110b) has a four-cornered structure within the circular outline, a nod to the location’s famous four-chimney landmark.

The new Labyrinths are located in each stations’ ticket hall, with the Battersea Power Station Labyrinth unveiled to London Underground enthusiasts today as a sheet of vinyl was peeled away by TfL staff to reveal the new design. The group then travelled to Nine Elms to unveil the station’s new artwork. The works are on permanent display.

Mark Wallinger said: ‘‘I am delighted and thrilled to have been given the opportunity to use the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the unveiling of the original Labyrinths to create two new ones.

The work was conceived as a celebration of the world’s greatest connective and welcoming public transport network. So I am immensely proud to be able to complete their presence across the network, and celebrate the underground’s reach through Nine Elms to the iconic Power Station, beloved by all Londoners’

Black Blossoms x Art on the Underground Course IIII: Endurance: A Vision of Resilience in a Precarious World

Endurance: A Vision of Resilience in a Precarious World is a new four week course from Black Blossoms and Art on the Underground expanding on the work of artist Shanti Panchal and his artwork for Brixton Underground station. The course will explore how images of resilient communities can intersect with hostile political landscapes. Participants will learn about artist Shanti Panchal’s painting practice and the key themes of interdependency and exile which underpin his work.

The course will also discuss Shanti Panchal’s mural in Shadwell from 1984 commissioned by the Greater London Council (GLC) as part of its Anti-Racist Mural Programme. Thinking through the history and context for mural making particularly in London.

Endurance: A Vision of Resilience in a Precarious World is taught by Curator and Writer Amrita Dhallu and responds to Shanti Panchal’s 2022 Art on the Underground commission, ‘Endurance’, a community portrait which observes our continued resilience and reliance on each other.

Tuesday 26 September 2022 – 24 October 2022 (please note there will be a break on 10 October)

Time: 6.30-7:45pm

Free. Online. Book here.

Courses were delivered live on Zoom and to create an interactive teaching environment, learning material was provided to registered participants prior to each class. Participants can access the learning platform on the Black Blossom’s website which includes the recordings of the live lectures and learning material for 90 days after the last live class.

For full information on the weekly sessions and to access learning material, please visit Black Blossoms’ website here.

Educator: Amrita Dhallu 

Amrita Dhallu is a curator and researcher based in London. She provides support structures for emerging British artists through commissioning, editorial projects, creating artistic networks and intergenerational learning spaces. Her current research examines ‘care’, spatial politics and ethno-futurist discourse within exhibition-making. She is Assistant Curator, International Art at Tate Modern, London, where she co-curated Lubaina Himid’s monographic exhibition (2021-2) and worked on projects such as Rasheed Araeen’s Zero to Infinity (2023) and Hilma af Klint and Piet Mondrian: Forms of Life (2023).