New exhibition

Edge: Where the Land Meets the Sea offers a major new exhibition at Hastings Contemporary, exploring the fundamental connection between land and sea and the vital role both play in sustaining life on our planet.

It runs from September 26-January 3.

Spokeswoman Sophia McNab said: “In an era of profound environmental change, Edge challenges conventional ideas of separation and presents the coastline as a dynamic zone of exchange, where rivers, soils and oceans converge.

“Co-curated with The Land Gardeners, who presented the acclaimed exhibition SOIL at Somerset House in 2025, this ambitious, gallery-wide exhibition brings together modern and contemporary artists to examine these interconnected living systems and their shared futures.

“Inspired by Hastings Contemporary's unique location on a shingle beach, Edge marks the first of two landmark exhibitions supporting the gallery's mission to focus its exhibitions and public programme on ocean futures and sustainability. Its companion exhibition, Horizon: Where the Sea Meets the Sky, will open in autumn 2027.

“The edge is a place where terrestrial and marine systems meet: where rivers transport the materials and histories of the land into the sea, and where complex networks of fungi, microbes, water, carbon and nutrients sustain interconnected forms of life.

“Bringing together art and ecological research, the exhibition explores the human impacts and processes that shape these environments, from biodiversity and regeneration to erosion, extraction and adaptation, revealing a powerful interdependency.

“Through painting, photography, film, sculpture and installation, Edge invites visitors to explore these profound and often unseen connections, bringing together more than 40 works from artists including Wolfgang Tillmans, Cornelia Parker, Gillian Wearing, David Nash, Charmaine Watkiss, Maggi Hambling, Duncan Grant, Aimée Parrott, Nancy Cadogan, Emma Tennant, Mike Perry, Cedric Morris, Tanoa Sasraku and Thérèse Oulton.

“Together, the works lead visitors on a journey from the living richness of the soil, through rivers, waterways and coastal margins, and out into the ocean itself.

“Artist Anya Gallaccio brings us into direct contact with the land by transforming an entire gallery with a reimagined version of her dramatic site-specific installation The Look of Things. Using soil harvested from a local farm and arranged in a grid of slowly drying clods of earth, the work brings visitors into contact with the smell, texture and physical presence of one of our most fundamental natural materials.

“Following the path of water towards the sea are a selection of works from David Nash RA's celebrated Wooden Boulder series (1978). Created over more than four decades, these drawings document the journey of a carved wooden sphere as it travels along the River Dwyryd, its course shaped entirely by the force of the water.

“At the shoreline, Rockweed (2023) sees sculptor Andy Goldsworthy record himself becoming submerged beneath rockweed as the tide rises around him.

“Taking visitors beneath the ocean’s surface, leading Nigerian-born artist Otobong Nkanga's richly woven tapestry Tied to the Other Side (2021), with its abstracted plants, corals and human limbs floating in a landscape, reflects on the cycle of life, death and rebirth. Nkanga’s work raises questions about the ownership of marine resources and the rights of water while referencing the colonisation of marine frontiers and the loss of life at sea. She compares the depths of the sea to deep geological time, reminding us of our shared obligation to minimise human impacts on global ecosystems.

“This exhibition reveals the edge as a site of transformation, responsibility and renewal where recognising the relationship between land and sea becomes essential to imagining more sustainable futures.”

Visiting the gallery: open Wednesday to Sunday and bank holidays, 11am to 5pm. Under 18s visit for free. Hastings and Rother residents can visit for half price, from £5. Become a member for unlimited free visits, special invitations, discounts and more, from £32 a year.

Hastings Contemporary Rock-a-Nore Road, Hastings, TN34 3DW.