Defying traditional portraiture, Wolfgang Strassl (*1956) has made a series of photographs which encapsulates the rich, varied, eclectic and diverse population of London as seen in the democratising space of a carriage on the London Underground. By omitting the face in these portraits, Strassl allows us an undistracted and genuine perusal of these passengers and the stories, which their visual appearances are telling. This also challenges our ability to see, recognise and understand these stories. It is a gentle yet pervasive look at the great sea of humanity travelling in subterranean London and the rich diversity in this contemporary metropolis. Text in English and German.

Arcadia – a utopian land where man lives in harmony with nature, where war, worry and disease are absent, where tranquillity, solidarity and happiness are everlasting – has a long tradition stretching back to antiquity. Originally a remote landscape in the Peloponnese, said within ancient Greek mythology to be inhabited by the gods and spirits of nature, this earthly paradise was transformed into an imaginary idyll by the Roman poet Virgil in his pastoral poems, and has lived on in Western art, intellectual history, and the imagination ever since. In Arcadian Sketchbook – photographed between 2020-2021 – Wolfgang Strassl wanders along his nearby river in search of peace of mind, amongst many others who were seeking the same at the time. As he explains, “I looked for Arcadia, simply on my own doorstep, and I found it there.”