Laetitia Yhap | Down Deep. Living seas, living bodies at State Art Gallery, Sopot, Poland

Three works by Laetitia Yhap, Into the Deep, 1989-1991, Shoreline, 1988-1990 and Alone, 1987 are on view in Down Deep. Living seas, living bodies at Sopot State Art Gallery through 4 April 2026.

 

Down Deep is a major group exhibition and research project that explores our physical, emotional, and spiritual interrelation with the ocean. Presented at the Sopot State Art Gallery (PGS) in partnership with the Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IO PAN) and the University of Gdańsk, the exhibition begins from the gallery’s location on the Baltic Coast and expands to a wider contemplation of oceanic space through a constellation of international artists.

 

The three works on display — for which Yhap is best known — are intricate and inventive paintings of fishermen, each crafted on unusually shaped panels, individually hand made by Yhap for each piece. Painted in Hastings, UK, a seaside town Yhap has called home since the late 1960s, the works speak to themes that are universal: from the nature of human relationships, togetherness and loneliness alike, to a commentary on the shifting landscape of labour. Fishing communities like the ones depicted are disappearing all over the world, due to industrialisation, shifting laws and even ecology.