Susie Hamilton: Underground

This vivid collection of drawings by Susie Hamilton, made between 2023 and 2025, captures the London Underground as both a real journey and a metaphorical transformation. This paperback presents a compelling new body of work by London-based painter Susie Hamilton, created on the London Underground between 2023 and 2025. Comprising nearly 90 drawings, the book captures the shifting, solitary figures of Tube passengers. 'Tube travellers became moon-eyed with stick arms or hands like hooks,' Hamilton notes, 'and I liked the way they seemed rickety, outlandish or menacing.' Ranging from monochrome pen-and-pencil sketches in sketchbooks to colourful mixed-media works on paper, cardboard and torn canvas scraps Hamilton calls Rags, these drawings explore the Underground not only as a physical site but as a metaphor and place of metamorphosis. The book includes a foreword by Eleanor Pinfield, Head of Art on the Underground, situating Hamilton's work within the Tube's long history of working with - and providing a rich seam of inspiration for - artists. An in-depth interview with writer Amah-Rose Abrams explores Hamilton's making process, from site-responsive sketchbook works, to pieces later developed in her studio, while an extended essay by Dr Matthew Holman delves into the literary, poetic and theological influences on her practice. A new text by the artist presents the Underground as a metaphor and place of metamorphosis in psychology, myth, poetry and religion.

About the Author :
London-based artist Susie Hamilton studied Fine Art at St Martin's School of Art and the Byam Shaw School of Art. She holds a PhD in Shakespeare studies from the University of London. She is represented by London's Paul Stolper Gallery and her work is held in major collections, including the Government Art Collection, the British Museum and the Science Museum. Recent solo exhibitions include Radiance and Shadows, Paul Stolper, London (2024) and Unbound, Paul Stolper, London (2022). A major monograph of her work was published by Anomie in 2024. Eleanor Pinfield is a curator and has been Head of Art on the Underground since 2014. She is a member of the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group, Chair of the Board at Auto Italia and was Commissioner for Diversity in the Public Realm (2021-24). Amah-Rose Abrams is a London-based art journalist and writer working in broadcast, printed media and online, specialising in writing about artists' practices and issues that affect artistic production. She is a contributing editor for Wallpaper* and has written for The Art Newspaper, artnet News, frieze, The Guardian and The New York Times. Dr Matthew Holman is Lecturer in English and Fine Arts at the University of Hertfordshire. He has held research fellowships at The Courtauld, Yale and the Smithsonian. His first monograph, Frank O'Hara and MoMA: New York Poet, Global Curator, is out with Bloomsbury.