The 2024 artists have been announced for Transport for London’s (TfL) Art On The Underground programme, with new pieces including a commission for one of the Underground stations at Heathrow Airport.
Joy Gregory, Joe Namy, Claudette Johnson, Rita Keegan, and Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings will create works as part of the programme.
Justine Simons OBE, deputy mayor for culture and the creative industries, said: "Art on the Underground is renowned around the world for transforming our Tube into a large public art gallery. Next year will see the partnership between contemporary artists, communities and history continue, bringing to life stories of diversity, culture and design from across London. I am confident that these striking artworks will be a welcome addition for commuters and visitors as they travel through the city, helping to build a better London for everyone.”
James Reed CBE, chairman and chief executive of recruitment firm Reed, said: “During many commutes through London, I have admired the impressive pieces and installations created by some of the very best emerging and established artists. Reed has a long history of supporting people and communities across London to find meaningful employment, including through our valued partnership with TfL. I look forward to the year ahead with many more interesting commutes, alongside the millions of people who are on their way to work.” Eleanor Pinfield, head of art on the Underground at TfL, said: “Bringing leading international artists to the spaces of the Tube in partnership with Reed, our 2024 programme invites a focus on the art and design history of London Underground, whilst also exploring the contemporary terrain of London today. The commissions ask us to reflect again on our histories; on whose voices are foregrounded and whose are overlooked and raises questions on how we might interrogate that history today.”
The 2023 programme saw the first in a brand-new series of sound artworks launch on the Tube network, by artist Shenece Oretha, a 60-metre-long amphibian sculptural installation at Gloucester Road station by Monster Chetwynd, and a major performance by Barby Asante at Stratford station of her seminal piece Declaration of Independence.
Meet the artists coming to the Underground:
1. Art On The Underground
Artists have been selected for TfL's Art On The Underground 2024 commissions. Photo: the artists
2. Claudette Johnson
British artist Claudette Johnson, whose Friends In Green + Red On Yellow is pictured here, will create a new mural artwork at Brixton station in November, as the eighth artist in the series of commissions at Brixton Tube station which, since 2018, has responded to the diverse narratives of the local murals painted in the 1980s. A founding member of the BLK Art Group in Wolverhampton in the early 1980s, Johnson is one of the foremost figurative artists working in Britain today. Photo: Claudette Johnson
3. Joy Gregory
Joy Gregory's The Sweetest Thing is pictured here. A series of artworks will be housed in the rotunda at Heathrow Terminal 4 Underground station in June by Gregory, focussing on themes of migration and plants and created in dialogue with refugees and asylum seekers in Hillingdon. The works envisage Heathrow as a gateway to London and seek to honour the stories and futures of people whose realities are often maligned or misrepresented
4. Rita Keegan
British artist Rita Keegan, who co-founded the Brixton Art Gallery in 1983 and established the Women Artists of Colour Index (WOCI) in 1985, will develop a new commission exploring the history of moquette design for the pocket Tube Map in August. Keegan’s work explores memory, history, dress and textiles, with the new Tube map cover to look into London Underground's archive of Tube seat moquette fabrics to identify a textile design rumoured to have been produced by the late artist Althea McNish, marking the centenary of her birth. Photo: Rita Keegan