A new exhibition of algal art in Stromness gallery Northlight will feature the work of seven artists.

The show will include photography, drawings, sculpture as well as pressed seaweeds.

The exhibiting artists are:

• Ingrid Budge
• Magdalena Choluj
• Rebecca Marr
• Alison Moore
• Ami Robb
• Dawn Steven
• Sarah Wylie  

Rebecca, who invited the artists to exhibit, said:

‘It is wonderful to be sharing the space together and sharing our love of seaweed. It’s everywhere, it’s everyday but somehow otherworldly and strange. I think the artists play with that strangeness and encourage the viewer to really take in the beauty of seaweed.’  

The show will draw on the work of Victorian pioneer Anna Atkins and her cyanotypes of British Algae as well as the Victorian women botanists whose pressed seaweed collections are in the Stromness Museum.

Among the work will be tangles suggesting faces, detailed drawing of dried sugar kelp, experimental alternative photography, wallpaper of delicate fronds and assemblages of dried knotted wrack imbued with colour.

Expect strange beauty.  

The exhibition will run from Saturday 12 August until Wednesday 23 August. Open Mon – Sat 11-4 at the Northlight Gallery. Stromness 

Running alongside the exhibition is the launch of an online exhibition by Rebecca exploring Orkney’s surprisingly entangled social history of seaweed.

The project is supported by a Visual Art and Craft maker Award. It can be visited at www.orkneyseaweedstories.wordpress.com from the 12th of August