Something Fishy (In the Best Way): “Under Water” Exhibition at WestLicht
500 people at the opening. No coral reef calendar shots. And sharks that looks like Hollywood stars.
Peter Coeln calls "Unter Wasser" his passion project. The ocean has fascinated the WestLicht founder for years - he's a fisherman himself. And that over 500 people showed up for the opening on March 12 tells you the subject strikes a nerve.
5 Reasons This Exhibition Will Surprise You
1. This Is Not an Underwater Photography Show
Sounds paradoxical, but that's the point. "Under Water" doesn't show the greatest hits of reef photography. The exhibition brings together over 120 works by around 20 artists - and many of them deliberately break with what you'd expect. It features historical pioneers like Hans Hass (1919–2013) and Jean Painlevé (1902–1989), but contrasts them with contemporary voices such as Manfred Wakolbinger and David Uzochukwu.
Robertina Šebjanič searches the Mediterranean for sunken World War munitions, deliberately cutting through the usual aesthetics of idyllic and colourful underwater photography. Mandy Barker collects plastic waste from beaches around the world and arranges it into photographic collages that at first glance look like swarms of marine creatures or galaxies. Look closer, and you see hundreds of destroyed soccer balls which polluted the oceans before.
Robertina Šebjanič explaining her project at “Under Water “ exhibition at Westlicht, 2026
And there's Claudia Rohrauer - recipient of Austria's Outstanding Artist Award for art photography and head of the Analog Photography Workshop at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Rohrauer doesn't photograph underwater. She investigates what happens when light meets chemistry.
Claudia Rohrauer framed by her work “Kelp Forest” from the series Algae Agent talking to curator Fabian Knierim at the exhibition “Under Water” at Westlicht, 2026
WestLicht presents water as political space, as chemical process, as ecological catastrophe.
2. Michael Muller Photographs Sharks Like Hollywood Stars
Michael Muller comes from celebrity photography. Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Harper's Bazaar - he's shot for all of them. Then he took his camera underwater. No cage.
His tool: a seven-bulb strobe system at 1,200 watts, developed with NASA engineers and encased in plexiglass. He lights great white sharks like models in a studio shoot. The result is disturbingly beautiful - predators with the presence of superstars, captured with a technique nobody had used before. Muller produced the first known nighttime photograph of a breaching great white shark. Let that sink in: alone in the open ocean, at night, with studio lighting, and a great white breaks through the surface. Quite impressive: his huge limited edition book about Sharks at Taschner Verlag. Its even presented (and sold) with a rusty metal cage!
Thomas P. Peschak flips the image: where Muller portrays the shark as superstar, the National Geographic photographer and marine biologist shows mountains of shark fins - making visible how the hunter becomes the hunted. Two perspectives on the same animal in the same exhibition (nothing for the faint-hearted).
3. From Innsbruck to Pharrell to WestLicht
David Uzochukwu was born in Innsbruck in 1998. At 17, FKA twigs personally picked him for a Nike campaign shoot in Mexico. He's worked with Pharrell Williams. Forbes put him on their 30 Under 30 list.
And yet: WestLicht is his first museum exhibition in Austria. His series "Mare Monstrum (Drown in My Magic)" shows Black sea beings - mythical figures that frame water not as a place of danger, but of transformation and liberation. The title plays on "Mare Nostrum" - the Mediterranean - and with it, on migration, identity, diaspora. Uzochukwu turns ocean myths into a counter-narrative. This isn't nature photography. This is political art that happens to take place underwater.
David Uzochukwu talking about his work presented in “Under Water” at Westslicht, 2026
4. A 1934 Film That Was Too Risqué for Censors - Because of Seahorses
Jean Painlevé was a French biologist who began filming marine life in the 1920s. The surrealists loved him for the results - Man Ray came to Painlevé when he needed starfish footage for his film. His masterpiece "L'hippocampe" shows seahorse reproduction: the female deposits her eggs into the male, who carries and births the young. In 1934, this reversal of gender roles was too much for the censors. A nature film. About seahorses. Censored.
WestLicht now shows this film alongside original photographs from the 1930s. Over 90 years old, and still more radical than most of what passes for provocative today.
5. Deep-Sea Creatures That Look Like Galaxies
Manfred Wakolbinger dives at night in the open ocean. The discipline is called "blackwater diving" - you float above hundreds of meters of nothing and wait for creatures that rise from depths to eat plankton in his series “Blackwater Galaxies“. His photographs show these beings larger than life: forms that recall the night sky more than biology. Wakolbinger inverts humanity's oldest gesture - instead of gazing up at the stars, he directs his gaze downward. And finds the same wonder.
More Surprises
Everyone in Austria knows Hans and Lotte Hass. What the exhibition makes visible: in the postwar years, the glamorous diving couple wasn't just science - it was also escapism for the viewers. The exotic underwater world offered audiences a welcome escape from grey reality and repressed guilt. WestLicht puts this ambivalence on open display rather than smoothing it over.
And then there are the Japanese ama free divers, photographed by Kusukazu Uraguchi in the 1950s. Women who have been financially independent through free diving for centuries. Alongside them, Hyung S. Kim shows the haenyeo of Jeju, South Korea - most of them over 60. Two disappearing traditions, one quiet dialogue.
Photographs of Hyung S. Kim “Under Water” exhibition at Westlicht, 2026
Go Sea It
"Under Water" runs until May 17, 2026. Peter Coeln's passion project has earned this attention - over 500 people at the opening speak for themselves. Additionally, starting March 20, there's a weekly Thursday afterwork with cocktails at the "Hai-Bar" (yes, really) and open end.
When was the last time a photography exhibition genuinely surprised you?
Visitor Info
UNDER WATER / UNTER WASSER
March 13 – May 17, 2026
WestLicht. Schauplatz für Fotografie
Westbahnstraße 40, 1070 Vienna
Opening hours:
Tue / Wed / Fri: 2–7 PM
Thu: 2–9 PM
Sat / Sun / holidays: 11 AM–7 PM
Mon: closed
Guided tours: Overview tours of the current exhibition, plus "After Hours Tours" outside regular hours (no public traffic). Booking & short-notice registration: +43 1 522 66 36 60 or info@westlicht.com
Hai-Bar Afterwork: Starting March 20, every Thursday - cocktails, exhibition, open end
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