A New Era At Wolterton: Sea State Exhibition Featuring Maggi Hambling & Ro Robertson
Hidden within the peaceful North Norfolk countryside, the Wolterton estate is stepping into a bold new chapter. After decades of slumber, the 18th-century Palladian masterpiece built by Horatio Walpole in 1741 has reopened to the public–not merely as a preserved historic site, but as a reimagined centre for contemporary arts and culture. Under the guidance of Artistic Director Simon Oldfield, Wolterton's inaugural arts and culture programme breathes striking new life into one of Britain's top 500 stately homes, opening a dialogue between heritage and the avant-garde, history and immediacy.
Set across 500 acres of parkland and framed by a 10-acre lake, the estate's restoration is not only physical–it is conceptual. The space now exists not only to remember the past, but to interrogate the present and look to the future. This season's programming represents a significant milestone in Wolterton's transformation, with exhibitions and residencies curated to explore identity, emotion, memory, and our relationship with the natural world.
Installation view, Maggi Hambling & Ro Robertson: Sea State, 2025, Wolterton. PHOTO: EVA HERZOG. COURTESY THE ARTISTS AND WOLTERTON
Sea, Memory, and Identity in Sea State
At the heart of the new programme is the two-person exhibition Sea State , featuring new work by celebrated British artist Maggi Hambling and the critically acclaimed Ro Robertson. Co-curated by Simon Oldfield and Gemma Rolls-Bentley, Sea State runs until December 7th, 2025, aligning with Hambling's 80th birthday.
Occupying Wolterton's Marble Hall and Portrait Room, the exhibition stages a compelling visual and emotional journey through our relationship with the sea–a force Hambling describes as 'ever moving' and 'timeless.' Upon entering the first-floor galleries, the ambient Norfolk light filters through tall windows, catching the textured surfaces of Hambling's waves and reflecting off Robertson's colourful steel sculpture. The effect is immersive and elemental.
Hambling's contribution is anchored by her new installation Time in the Portrait Room–an intimate collection of forty Nightwaves radiating around a central portrait of her late partner, Tory, October 2024 . The portrait, according to Hambling, 'painted itself' at the moment of Tory's death and serves as both a tribute and a meditation on love, grief, and nature's continuity. The surrounding wave paintings add emotional turbulence, invoking both the physical might and metaphysical vastness of the sea. Here, the sea becomes more than subject–it becomes a surrogate for memory, loss, and the artist's internal landscape.
Sea State, Maggi Hambling, Wolterton PHOTO: EVA HERZOG. COURTESY THE ARTISTS AND WOLTERTON
In the adjoining Marble Hall, Hambling presents two new monumental canvases– Summer Wave Breaking II and Wall of Water XXVII . These explosive yet meditative works, part of her celebrated Wall of Water series, ripple with energy and echo the physicality of the ocean. They are not mimetic but expressive–evocative of sound, sensation, and psychic resonance. 'The sound of the sea,' as Hambling puts it, is felt more than seen.
Sharing the space is Ro Robertson's The Swell , a bold new site-specific sculpture composed of three undulating steel forms, painted in rich marine hues. The work–which has been acquired by the Ellis Family, current owners of Wolterton–feels both solid and in motion. Each element encircles a central void, which Robertson describes as symbolic thresholds–portals between identities, spaces, and ideas. It is an invitation to look not just at, but through.
Robertson's gouache works on paper flank The Swell , continuing their exploration of sea-as-symbol. Born in Sunderland and now living in Cornwall, the artist has long drawn on the fluidity and wildness of the coast to explore themes of queerness, transformation, and emotional resilience. As they note, 'Both the sea and Maggi Hambling are vital inspirations,' reflecting a conversation across generations and identities that's felt palpably throughout the show.
The pairing of Hambling and Robertson is a curatorial triumph. Though separated by age and medium, both artists find in the sea a metaphor for life's instability and beauty. The works invite not just admiration but introspection–challenging us to reconsider our relationship to nature, to time, and to one another.
Installation view, Maggi Hambling, Sea State 2025, Wolterton. Photo: Eva Herzog. Courtesy the artist and Wolterton.
A Wild Pulse: Nessie Stonebridge's Residency
On the ground floor of the house, a different but equally compelling energy takes hold. Suffolk-based artist Nessie Stonebridge, currently artist-in-residence at Wolterton, presents new ceramic and painted works that seem to pulse with the wild, untamed rhythm of the estate itself.
Her dynamic sculptures and canvases are alive with depictions of Norfolk's native wildlife—swans, dogs, herons—rendered in an expressive style that's as primal as it is poetic. These creatures, often captured in moments of flight, fear, or fight, act as metaphors for personal trauma, resilience, and the human instinct for survival. Stonebridge's work walks a tightrope between chaos and grace, abstraction and figuration.
Much of her practice emerges from the land itself–observations made on daily walks through the estate and the surrounding countryside. Whether painted from memory or sketched on site, her animals seem to leap from their surfaces, propelled by an urgency that speaks to life lived on the edge. Through Stonebridge's lens, nature is not pastoral, but fierce, fragile, and ferociously alive.
Nessie Stonebridge and Lee Sharrock at Wolterton Lee Sharrock
Local Voices and Global Conversations
Beyond these centrepiece exhibitions, Wolterton's broader cultural programme includes residencies and research-led projects rooted in place. The Clay Research Group (CRG), based in Norwich, explores the local material history of the estate–engaging directly with the soils, resources, and archival narratives of the region. Similarly, De Onkruidenier, artists-in-residence at the Sainsbury Centre, are based at Wolterton until September, creating work that interrogates ecological memory and environmental change.
These initiatives ground the estate's arts programme in the Norfolk landscape–bridging global themes with hyper-local specificity. They demonstrate a clear intention: to make Wolterton not a closed bastion of heritage, but an evolving space for critical, creative, and collective exploration.
A Living Estate for the 21st Century
What makes Wolterton's cultural revival so remarkable is not just the calibre of artists on show, but the ambition of its vision. It's not simply a gallery, nor a museum, nor a stately home frozen in time. It's all of those–and something more. It's a living, thinking estate that dares to juxtapose grandeur with grit, history with risk, and tradition with transformation.
The public can explore the house, grounds, and lake; stay overnight in the main hall or one of several charming cottages; and experience art in a setting that transcends the usual white cube. With bespoke experiences on offer, including private views and curated stays, the estate invites deep engagement–not just a visit, but an immersion.
The launch of the Wolterton Arts & Culture Programme marks a powerful and poetic reinvention. This is not heritage for heritage's sake–it's a bold new articulation of how the past can fuel the present. With visionary curation, deep connection to place, and a commitment to dialogue between artists and audiences, Wolterton has firmly established itself as one of the UK's most exciting new cultural destinations.
Find more information on visiting Wolterton here.
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