Deep Horizons

with Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art

Deep Horizons is a new collaborative exhibition, drawing together 60 works from the collections of David and Indrė Roberts and MIMA (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art). The exhibition takes place at MIMA in Middlesbrough and explores ideas around excavation, including the mind and dreams, history and time, geology and the land as well as collections, archives and the museum itself.

The exhibition has come together through a series of conversations with a group of invited curatorial collaborators hosted by MIMA and RIA. The curatorial collaborators have been selected because of their specialist knowledge, research and experience in relation to excavation. Their ideas are interwoven into the curation of the exhibition to give unique points of view on two very different collections when thinking about excavation.

Deep Horizons shows especially the dividends that imaginative curating can pay. [...] Added to the mix are the ideas of six other curators — which might sound like a nightmare, but in fact it is a brilliant idea.
Apollo, May 2023

The curatorial collaborators include the actor and broadcaster Sir Tony Robinson, artists Liliane Lijn and Fiona Crisp, botanist Dr Greg Kenicer, Professor of Physics Chamkaur Ghag, writer and academic Dr Julietta Singh and former Tees Bay Pilot Geoff Taylor.

The exhibition features the works of 47 artists including: Caroline Achaintre, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Sonia Boyce, Chiara Camoni, Martin Creed, Ellen Gallagher, Theaster Gates, Lonnie Holley, Onya McCausland, Ana Mendieta, Adrian Piper, Keith Piper, Paula Rego, Doris Salcedo and John Stezaker.

Listen to the Deep Horizons playlist

For the launch of Deep Horizons, exhibiting artist Lonnie Holley — whose practice spans painting, sculpture, filmmaking and music — curated this playlist in response to the exhibition's theme of excavation.

You can find more press coverage on our dedicated press page.