Those who frequent Brixton will be familiar with the great overhang that greets you on entering the Underground station. Well, it’s now adorned with a new mural by artist Rudy Loewe.
The mural is a bustling scene intended to represent the character of the local area. And it is stacked with specific references to the nearby places, history, and political tensions to boot.
“I wanted to capture the aliveness of Brixton. As soon as you step out of the Tube station, there's such a rich sensorial experience, and it was this that I wanted to transmute into painting,” says Loewe.
“There are preachers, loud music, people singing; you can hardly walk down the street without having an unexpected conversation with someone. It makes it a very special place in London. To me, there is something about all of this that is so West Indian and that I wanted to foreground.”
Just some of the things you’ll spot spending a minute admiring the mural include references to the SisterMatic queer women’s club night, Southwyck House and Pearl Alcock's underground bar, which was the only queer space in Brixton when it opened in 1977.
The piece is called The Congregation, and takes over from the 2024 piece by Turner Prize nominee Claudette Johnson.
“In The Congregation, Loewe distils the complexity of social, architectural, individual and generational histories, particularly of the Black community, into a hugely rich work sprawling across space and time. Millions of people will enjoy these vivid depictions of Brixton life and, perhaps, learn more about scenes featured in the work as they travel through the station,” says Eleanor Pinfield, Head of Art for London Underground.
The mural will be in place until November 2026, so there’s no need to rush out to see this one.
There is a date to note, though. On November 27th, Rudy Loewe and several of the sitters for the piece, including Marcia Rigg, CJ Rivers and SisterMatic’s Eddie Lockhart and Yvonne Taylor, will hold an “evening of conversation, film and audio” at Brixton’s Ritzy. Tickets are available from the event’s Eventbrite page.
The artwork’s commission is part of the Art on the Underground programme, which was established in the year 2000.
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