Art

THE sea is a subject of perennial fascination for artists and Shore, the Rubicon Gallery's new exhibition opening next Thursday, marshals work by three of them, working in different media. The show includes paintings by Marie Hanlon, sculpture by Vivienne Roche and photographs by Amelia Stein - above is a print from Stein's Shoreline Series. Their work is informed by changing cultural perceptions of the sea, as ecological awareness has gradually revealed it to be not just a brute, impersonal force but a remarkable fragile one as well. "Seascapes, like landscapes, change their meaning from one generation to the next . . . 50 years ago classic images of the sea might well have been given titles that invested the scene with human affect . . ." As this show suggests, our views have changed, but the human bond is as strong and instinctive as ever.