Hadal Floor

Orrin Whalen’s sculptural paintings chart a descent into the ocean’s most enigmatic reaches, where material and myth entwine. Inspired by the mysteries of the deep sea, this body of work evokes the layered descent from surface shimmer to hadal depth—each piece an abstracted artifact from an imagined underwater journey. Whalen manipulates form like a current: shapes swell and contract, appearing to ripple across the surface, echoing the organic movement of tides and the undulating silhouettes of marine life. Using a palette that shifts from sunlit translucence to dense, velvety shadow, Whalen mirrors the ocean’s gradations of light and life. His sculptural application of paint transforms each panel into a physical terrain—textured, aqueous, and immersive. The series draws particular inspiration from the Hadalpelagic zone, the ocean’s deepest, least explored layer, where light vanishes and life adapts in alien ways. In referencing this abyssal realm, Whalen's work becomes a meditation on