reefline underwater art project miami beach leandro erlich 1234772956

The Reefline, a non-profit eco-art initiative, has launched its first phase of a seven-mile underwater sculpture park and artificial reef along Miami Beach. The project debuted with 'Concrete Coral' by Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich, a submerged sculpture depicting a traffic jam designed to provide a habitat for marine life. Future phases include works by Carlos Betancourt, Alberto Latorre, and Petroc Sesti, all overseen by the architecture firm OMA and founder Ximena Caminos.

painting unfolds across earth, canvas, and space in katharina grosse’s london exhibition

Katharina Grosse's exhibition 'I Set Out, I Walked Fast' at White Cube London presents a continuous environment where painting extends beyond the canvas into space. The show features new works, archival material, and a large in-situ installation that combines mounds of earth, a partially submerged canvas, and a bronze-cast sculpture into a single painted field. Grosse uses an industrial spray gun to apply acrylic pigments, creating works that blur boundaries between surface, site, and viewer. The exhibition avoids chronological order, instead connecting pieces from different periods to form a spatial network where individual works function as nodes.

Concrete cars for coral reefs: Miami's underwater eco-sculpture park takes shape

The first phase of the Reefline project, an underwater sculpture park off the coast of Miami Beach, has been installed with 22 submerged concrete cars created by Argentine artist Leandro Erlich. The sculptures, titled "Concrete Coral" (2025), sit 20 feet below the surface and are designed to support coral regeneration and marine biodiversity. The project was developed by cultural placemaker Ximena Caminos with a masterplan by architect Shohei Shigematsu of OMA, and will expand over ten years to reach seven miles in length. Visitors can access the site via swimming, diving, or electric paddleboards, and a floating marine learning center is anchored nearby during Miami Art Week.

Fast-Rising Painter Li Hei Di Smashes Auction Record at Sotheby’s Hong Kong

A new auction record for fast-rising Chinese-born painter Li Hei Di was set at Sotheby’s Hong Kong on Sunday evening, with the work *There Was One Summer Returning Over and Over; There Was One Dawn I Grew Old Watching* (2023) selling for HK$2.67 million ($342,824). The price represents a 91-percent increase from the artist’s previous high, set just six months ago, and more than doubled its presale high estimate after a five-minute bidding battle. Li, born in Shenyang in 1997 and based in London, opened their first solo exhibition with Pace in Hong Kong this summer and is the youngest artist on the international gallery’s roster.

Hera Büyüktaşçıyan Channels Istanbul’s Haunted Histories

Hera Büyüktaşçıyan Channels Istanbul’s Haunted Histories

Hera Büyüktaşçıyan has opened a major solo exhibition, 'I Know You As Her', at Istanbul's Arter museum. The show features new and existing works, including sculptures, installations, and watercolors, that explore submerged histories and spectral presences within the city's urban fabric, particularly around the historic Pera district.

ancient egyptian pleasure boat portus magnus 2725487

Underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio and his Institut Européen d’Archéologie Sous-Marine (IEASM) team have discovered the remains of a 35-meter-long ancient Egyptian pleasure boat, known as a thalamagos, in the submerged Portus Magnus off Alexandria’s harbor. The 28-meter preserved timbers, found seven meters underwater and buried under sediment, represent the first physical evidence of such vessels, previously known only from ancient texts like Strabo's Geography and the Nile mosaic at Palestrina. The ship, built in Alexandria and propelled by oars, features a central pavilion and Greek graffiti from the 1st century C.E., and may have sunk around 50 C.E. during the destruction of the temple of Isis on Antirhodos Island.

Catalyst: Art as Activism

Summerhall Arts in Edinburgh has launched "Catalyst: Art as Activism," a major exhibition featuring four solo shows by artists Eilidh Appletree, Taraneh Dana, Kasia Oleskiewicz, and Molly Wickett. The project utilizes sculpture and installation to confront urgent global issues including the climate crisis, capitalist extraction, disability rights, and the realities of migration. A central component, Eilidh Appletree’s "Net Worthy," uses materials like mycelium, soya wax, and sand to create a submerged seascape that warns of biodiversity loss and the ecological consequences of industrial food production.

digitally rebuilding lighthouse of alexandria as 3d model 1234772703

A team of historians, architects, and programmers is digitally reconstructing the Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Pharos Project, led by archaeologist Isabelle Hairy, is scanning thousands of submerged granite blocks and artifacts from the seabed to create a comprehensive 3D model of the structure, which was destroyed by an earthquake in 1303.

titanic gold pocket watch sets auction record 1234763383

A gold pocket watch recovered from the Titanic wreck, owned by Isidor Straus, sold for £1.78 million ($2.33 million) at Henry Aldridge and Son Auctioneers in Devizes, England, setting a new auction record for Titanic memorabilia. The 18-carat Jules Jurgensen watch, engraved and given to Straus on his 43rd birthday in 1888, stopped at 02:20 when submerged. Straus, a Macy's partner and former U.S. Congressman, perished with his wife Ida on the Titanic in 1912. The sale also included other items totaling £3 million, such as a letter by Ida Straus and a Titanic passenger list.

Frank Relle’s Photos Revel in Louisiana’s Otherworldly Swampland

Photographer Frank Relle continues his long-term artistic exploration of Louisiana's swamps, capturing the ethereal transition between day and night in his series 'Until the Water'. Based in New Orleans, Relle uses submerged lights to illuminate cypress trees and Spanish moss, creating serene, otherworldly images that convey a sense of timelessness and connection to a primordial landscape.

Ballast review: emerging artist Isabella Kennedy considers submerged histories

Emerging multidisciplinary artist Isabella Kennedy has unveiled her installation 'Ballast' at Firstdraft in Sydney, a site-specific work that blends paper sculpture, video projection, and sound. The exhibition draws on the unfinished research of her late father, journalist Les Kennedy, regarding the 1941 disappearance of the HMAS Sydney II. Through delicate stitched paper forms and immersive blue light, Kennedy explores themes of familial grief, maritime history, and the meditative acts of remembrance that bridge personal and national narratives.

Marcy Bernstein at Ceres Gallery in New York

Ceres Gallery, a pioneering feminist gallery in New York, opens its 43rd season with two exhibitions: "Marcy Bernstein: Evocative Abstractions" and Carlyle Upson's "Submerged," running from September 2 to September 27, 2025. Bernstein's mixed media paintings on recycled surfaces feature bold brushstrokes and layered textures exploring geometry, symbolism, and nature, while Upson's work is also on view. The season includes public programs such as an opening reception, an author talk and book signing with Michael G. Garber, and a closing reception.

egypt alexandria artifacts lifted sea 1234750290

Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities recovered underwater ruins from a sunken city off the coast of Alexandria on August 21. Divers and cranes retrieved ancient statues, including royal figures and sphinxes from the pre-Roman era, such as a partially preserved sphinx with the cartouche of Ramses II. The site in Abu Qir bay also revealed limestone buildings, residential and commercial structures, a 125-meter dock over 2,000 years old, a merchant ship, stone anchors, and a harbor crane from the Ptolemaic and Roman eras. Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy noted that only specific material meeting strict criteria is brought up, with the rest remaining underwater heritage.

Ancient artefacts from sunken city lifted out of Mediterranean near Alexandria

Ancient artefacts from the sunken city of Canopus, submerged off the coast of Alexandria, have been recovered for the first time in 25 years. During a three-day underwater heritage event (19-21 August), archaeologists lifted limestone structures, a quartz sphinx bearing cartouches of Ramses II, and a white marble statue of a Roman nobleman from the Mediterranean. The operation was led by the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM) in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, with French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio playing a key role. The finds are now on display in the exhibition 'Secrets of the Sunken City' at the Alexandria National Museum.