For All At Last Return
For All At Last Return is a major group exhibition at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art that foregrounds the intricate relationships between humans and marine environments. Spanning from 8 November 2025 to 7 June 2026, the show brings together sculpture, video, photography and installation across multiple gallery spaces, offering an expansive survey of artistic engagements with ocean ecologies.
Participating artists — both British and international — explore life from near-shore ecosystems to the open ocean and deep sea, addressing pressing issues such as climate change, overfishing, colonial histories, extraction and ecological memory. The exhibition positions water not only as a material and metaphor but as a living archive that connects communities and cultures across the globe.
The programme also includes newly commissioned work — like a Lightbox presentation by Nadia Huggins — broadening the dialogue between artistic practice and environmental science. Overall, For All At Last Return offers an immersive experience that situates art within urgent conversations around environmental degradation and resilience.
For All At Last Return is a major group exhibition presented at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, United Kingdom, running from 8 November 2025 to 7 June 2026. The exhibition brings together international artists working across photography, video, sculpture, and installation to explore humanity’s complex relationship with marine environments. Spanning multiple gallery spaces, the exhibition examines oceans as sites of memory, extraction, ecology, and cultural exchange, situating contemporary artistic practice within urgent conversations around climate change, environmental responsibility, and interconnected global histories.
Exhibition Description
For All At Last Return at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art is conceived as a global expedition through marine habitats. Drawing on the foundations of ecological art practice, the exhibition traces the shifting boundaries between land and sea, surface and depth, and human impact versus natural agency. Works in the show examine coral reefs, intertidal zones, open waters and deep-sea ecologies through diverse media including sculpture, photography and expanded installation formats.  Artists participating in the exhibition investigate multiple facets of human-ocean entanglement: environmental violence, resource extraction, indigenous and local ecological knowledge, and potential pathways for regeneration. The works reflect collaborations with scientists and communities, situating artistic inquiry alongside marine biology, oceanography, and climate data.  By juxtaposing historical narratives with contemporary environmental crises, the exhibition encourages visitors to consider the ocean as both participant and witness in human history. Themes of extraction, resistance and memory are interwoven with aesthetic explorations of form and material, making For All At Last Return both a sensory and intellectual encounter with the pressing realities of global marine systems.
