The forthcoming exhibition, The Road to Elysium will showcase contemporary photography of the highest international caliber. For their second exhibibition, Heist have curated a show where most of the pictures are mirages, telling stories conjured directly from an imagination of a post- apocalyptic world in the distant future. Each work tells its own arcadian tale through fairytale sets and arresting visions.

Taking inspiration from Virgi’s Aeneid, an epic Latin story of identity and anxiety about nationhood, the show will feature works from some of the world’s most innovative fine art photo-graphers. Many of the artists featured have exhibited in some of the world’s most prestigious institutions including AES+F, Richard Mosse, Amanda Charchian, Laurent Badessi, Kim Keever, Aaron Hobson, Madame Peripetie, Liu Ren and Melvin Sokolsky.

"In no fix’d place the happy souls reside. In groves we live, and lie on mossy beds, By crystal streams, that murmur thro’ the meads: But pass yon easy hill, and thence descend; The path conducts you to your journey’s end." - Virgil, Aeneid (6.641)[18]

Like Virgil’s Aeneid, Heist present a vision of what society could become, centuries in the future. Each one tells a story of a brave new world. Some are fantastical and summon fairy-tale worlds or science fiction, some are visitations to an underworld. All pieces in the show share a common thread; essentially, each is a timeless image that doesn’t belong to any era, a daydream on paper. The exhibition’s centrepiece will be AES+F’s piece measuring three-metres high and six-metres in length. AES+F are a Russian photography group who have gained recognition for pioneering a new method of fine-art photography which they have termed animated sculpture, combining photography with video art and animation to create striking images that push the boundaries of what photography can achieve.

Mashael Al Rushaid, the founder of Heist, who has curated the show alongside Tyrone Wood explains, explains the gallery’s reasons for a dreamscape-inspired show. “With this exhibition we aim to use striking photography and immersive installations to take visitors on a dreamlike journey and transport them to a utopian world, rejecting the violence, conflict and injustices of our own. We at Heist are dedicated to exhibiting the works of ambitious photographers who continually push the boundaries and all the pieces on display are true to this cause.”