Arch Enemy Arts and PangeaSeed have come together to present COMMON WATERS, a group exhibition that directly supports PangeaSeed’s ocean conservation efforts and advocacy work. There’s something very special about being in the presence of anything larger than ourselves. The ocean feels this way. It’s unknown and mysterious, holding endless depth and meaning.
What exists beneath the surface?
We are a lot like the ocean. We move through life showing only visible layers while carrying the weight of an internal world created by memory, emotion, complexity, and history. All of that hidden vastness is sometimes kept in solitude, and yet it is a shared thread with nature… and with one another.
AEA x PangeaSeed COMMON WATERS Exhibition
June 5th – July 12th, 2026
Arch Enemy Arts
109 Arch Street | Philadelphia, PA 19106 USA | (215) 717-7774
For sales or private viewing appointments, please email info@archenemyarts.com
Regular Gallery Hours:
CLOSED MONDAY & TUESDAY
• Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 10am – 4pm
• Saturdays & Sundays: 11am – 5pm
Press Release
The ocean is often imagined as vast and unknowable, something so separate and distant from ourselves that it becomes difficult to reach, protect, or even understand. PangeaSeed is an organization that seeks to close that gap in the hearts and minds of communities. Through murals and impressive worldwide programs, they leverage the power of contemporary art to raise awareness and advocate for ocean conservation.
That is why Arch Enemy Arts is honored to host COMMON WATERS: One Ocean Many Voices, a unique charitable exhibition with art sales in direct benefit of PangeaSeed’s ocean advocacy efforts. Presented in Philadelphia, the birthplace of the United States, during the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding, the show brings together sixty international new-contemporary artists inspired by the ocean, its ecosystems, and humankind’s impact on the sea, reminding us that no shore or action exists in isolation.
Across drawing, painting, sculpture, and mixed media, the work in COMMON WATERS is wondrous and haunting, joyful and reverent, ornamental and deep with meaning. In some works, bodies are swept away, becoming one with ocean drifts (Manuel Zamudio, Alex Eckman-Lawn), while others transform deep sea creatures into gentle, guiding companions (Juliet Schreckinger, Kazuhiro Hori). We see imagined, magical aquatic ecosystems (Shannon Taylor, Caroline Dewison, Bub Davis), as well as vibrant true-to-nature portraits of marine life (Andrea Hooge, Jeremy Nichols). Other artists explore more topical realities like warming reefs (Emily White), natural disasters (John Rego), consumption (Kerry R. Thompson), and the environmental costs of global trade (Garrett Cook).
Taken together, these works flow through styles and interpretations to form an urgent and imaginative showcase. And for a limited time, the gallery and artists have committed to donating a portion of sales from our BEYOND TIDES group show series to PangeaSeed so that, with collectors’ help, we may make an even greater impact. Select works from BEYOND TIDES are on exhibition alongside COMMON WATERS through July 12th.
About the Gallery
Founded in 2012, Arch Enemy Arts is an exhibition space for established and emerging artists from all over the world, actively working in the vast and imaginative movement of New Contemporary Art. Curation at Arch Enemy Arts focuses on representational drawing, painting, and sculpture with emphasis in lowbrow/pop surrealism, magical realism, and post-graffiti genres. Our programming provides access to a range of artistic expression through a variety of styles and mediums, dedicated to showcasing the strikingly unconventional, highly technical, and delightfully strange.
Celebrated within Philadelphia’s thriving arts community, Arch Enemy Arts has been named Philly’s Favorite Art Gallery in 2025 by The Philadelphia Inquirer, selected as Best of Philly™ – Best Art Gallery in Philadelphia Magazine’s 40th Anniversary issue, and voted Best Art Gallery in Philadelphia on Philly HOT LIST in 2012 and 2013.
