Miguel Rothschild: Undercurrents13 at Hastings Contemporary

Words by Emily Holland

This summer, Hastings Contemporary is delighted to present the first solo show in a major UK gallery of work by the internationally celebrated Argentinian-born artist, Miguel Rothschild.

Referencing the unique location of Hastings Contemporary as a gallery facing the sea and situated directly on the beach, the exhibition will include a dramatic new, site-specific seascape installation, shown alongside recent works which explore the elemental power of the sea.

Miguel Rothschild, Elegy (detail), 2017, print on fabric, fishing line, lead balls, epoxy, acrylic.

Rothschild’s work spans film, expanded photography, drawing and large-scale installations

which transform manmade materials with playful lightness to create impossible dioramas

which beguile and transfix the viewer. Inspired by a profound sense of awe and wonder at the elemental power of nature, his visual language is charged with mysticism, magic and spirituality and an ongoing quest to convey the intersection of the sacred and the profane.

This series of work is immersed in the duality of the sea: its immeasurable beauty and that

which remains hidden beneath its surface. This dualism and primal energy have inspired Rothschild’s work for more than two decades, creating works which transform photographic process into drawing or kinetic sculpture to conjure the luminous, dynamic surface of the sea, as well as its silent, introspective depths. His work seeks to encourage dialogue around the need to care for and understand our oceans, and how sustainability requires us to acknowledge what remains hidden beneath the waves.

Often toying with our pre-conceived notions of what we see and what we believe to be real,

Rothschild disrupts and distorts that view with seemingly literal depictions that seduce with

their sense of drama and movement, but go on to reveal themselves to be melancholic,

fractured and vulnerable.

In his two-dimensional expanded photographic works, including Ocean Crack (2026) and Sea of Absence (2017), the safety glass which overlays each image is shattered, the fractures following the rhythm of the waves. Light breaks along with it, producing glimmers and shadows that fall across the image; simultaneously seducing and unsettling the viewer in the act of revealing the fragility at the heart of each work.

In the large scale installation From the Depths of the Sea (2026), a rain of fishing lines suspend an expanded photographic image of the ocean printed on fabric. Digitally constructed from multiple shots of the sea, the printed surface appears to ripple in waves, which in turn change in response to each movement of the viewer, revealing that there is no single way of seeing, but multiple layers of meaning that emerge and sink, like currents beneath the surface of the sea.

Whilst the surface of the work appears in restless movement, beneath the surface a line of

sinker weights hold the fabric and each line in place. Rothschild describes this meditive work as a ‘floating silence‘, confronting the two dimensions of the sea and asking us to question our perception whilst suggesting that sustainability begins where the gaze dares to move beyond the surface.

Miguel Rothschild said, “In these works I wanted to confront two dimensions of the sea: the luminous, seductive surface, and the silent, dense, vulnerable depths. Like the front and reverse of a single presence, the ocean reveals and conceals itself in equal measure"

“The exhibition invites viewers to consider what lies beneath, and to reflect on the idea that what is visible is only a fragment of reality. The work is never the same; it transforms with each gaze and every step. I am delighted to bring these works to Hastings this summer.”

Kathleen Soriano, Director of Hastings Contemporary said, “Miguel Rothschild’s ongoing

fascination with the surface of the sea, and the complexities of what lies beneath, see him

fragment, fracture and isolate the elements so that the subject matter becomes both abstracted and elevated, clear in what it depicts but obscure in what it reveals. Showing alongside new paintings by Janaina Tschäpe, our summer season brings together two significant international artists whose contrasting approaches illuminate the sea in compelling and unexpected ways.”

The show is part of the summer season at Hastings Contemporary and will be on display alongside Janaina Tschäpe and Moore / Freud.