Viewing Enchanted Alchemies: Magic, Mysticism and the Occult in Art

Magic, mysticism and the occult have been something of hot topics in art again recently – in part due to revisiting the surrealists to mark the centenary year of the movement this year. Lévy Gorvy Dayan’s timely exhibition places historical figures such as Eileen Agar, Leonora Carrington, Ithell Colquhoun and Leonor Fini in conversation with more recent works by artists still active and prominent today, from Alejandro Jodorowsky to Bharti Kher, Linder, and Goshka Macuga.

It’s a major affair: more than fifty works feature, spanning painting, sculpture, ceramic, watercolour, and collage, sharing a sensibility and interest in the magical and mystical, the transformative and the alchemical.

The exhibition moves between works by British Surrealist, Colquhoun, explorations of an all-encompassing and dynamic force beyond what we might be able to see or perceive, to Jodorowsky’s Enchanted Alchemies – lending their name to the show’s title – the filmmaker, visual artist, and comic book writer, who worked with Carrington and continues a practice that engages with magical concepts today, rooted deeply in a Surrealist mysticism. A fascinating insight into a universe of alternative ways of seeing, being and relating to one another.