A major new exhibition by acclaimed landscape artist Jeremy Gardiner is set to open at Southampton City Art Gallery on Friday 30 October, showcasing the remarkable beauty and geological history of the Jurassic Coast.
Titled Strata, the exhibition features a collection of paintings celebrating the iconic coastline, marking 25 years since its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The works have been created as part of an ambitious multi-year exploration of the Dorset coastline. For four decades, Gardiner has painted and explored England’s south coast, observing its geology and recording the harbours, bays, coves, castles, lighthouses and follies that characterise the landscape.
In 2018, he selected 20 locations along the Jurassic Coast and returned to them annually, capturing the landscape through different seasons and weather conditions.
Gardiner’s approach reflects the physical processes that continually reshape the coast. He cuts, scrapes and chisels the surfaces of his paintings, as well as using techniques including marbling, pouring, sanding and repainting to evoke the passage of geological time. His practice also draws on science, geomorphology and digital mapping.
Visitors will be able to explore a substantial 3D relief map of the coast, constructed using satellite data, helping them locate the places represented in Gardiner’s paintings.
Against a backdrop of growing concern for the Earth's environment, Strata creates a record of a remarkable but changing stretch of the English coastline.
The exhibition will run from Friday 30 October 2026 to Saturday 11 April 2027. We have recently changed our opening times and the Art Gallery is now open from Tuesday to Sunday.
Councillor Sarah Bogle, Leader of the Council, said:
“We’re delighted to welcome Jeremy Gardiner and Strata to Southampton City Art Gallery. It is a fascinating exhibition that brings art, landscape, science and our relationship with the natural environment together. Jeremy’s extraordinary commitment to revisiting and recording the Jurassic Coast offers visitors a chance to see this internationally important landscape from a new perspective. And visitors can now also enjoy the Art Gallery on Sundays!”
Jeremy Gardiner, artist, said:
“The Jurassic Coast is a landscape of extraordinary beauty, but it is also one that is constantly changing. Strata was the culmination of returning to the same locations year after year, from 2018-22, observing how light, weather, seasons and geology transform our experience of a place. I’m delighted to bring these works together at Southampton City Art Gallery.”
