Intertidal
Anna Spencer
21 AUG–7 SEPT

Intertidal presents Anna Spencer’s intricate paintings shaped by the rhythms of the intertidal zone—a space of constant negotiation between permanence and flux. Built in layers, her works inhabit thresholds between land and sea, solid and liquid, seen and submerged, evoking the nuances of the coastal environment in which she finds herself living.

The tide is one of the few certainties—part of nature’s daily rhythms, its steady ebb and flow reshaping the shoreline each day. Within this ever-shifting space, Spencer spends time quietly observing, allowing the work to emerge from close attention to detail. Tiny treasures appear only to those who look closely: the delicate mark-making of crabs, the looping trails of molluscs, the fleeting prints of seabirds. These ephemeral signs, evidence of life and movement become part of her visual vocabulary.

Spencer’s layered approach mirrors these natural processes: markings are built up, partially covered, washed back, and repainted. Each painting holds the tension of something both emerging and dissolving. There’s beauty in the impermanence—every tide will turn. 

This body of work is a meditation on transience, on noticing the unnoticed, and on honouring the quiet complexity of a place that is always in motion, always becoming, and never quite the same.

Please join us for a drink to celebrate the opening of Intertidal on Friday 22 August (6–8PM)