NEW! Hilma af Klint exhibition curated by Pascal Rousseau at the Grand Palais in Paris. Wonderful balance of the figurative and abstract, theosophy and Spiritualism, and contextual material. The show flowed and the lighting was sublime - every detail brought to life. “Recently revealed as a pioneer of abstraction, the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) developed, in the early twentieth century, a fascinating body of work which has yet to be discovered in France. The exhibition presents her Paintings for the Temple (1906-1915), an important group of eleven series in which the artist recasts the line between visible and invisible, abstraction and figuration, through symbols, figures and geometric shapes. Inspired by Nordic folklore, natural science and esoterism, Hilma af Klint developed her visual vocabulary as part of The Five (De Fem) group of women, who produced “automatic drawings” during spiritist seances.
Driven by spirituality and freedom of expression, the work of Hilma af Klint continues to inspire new generations. More than a hundred canvases and drawings chart her spiritual journey, and at her request were not shown publicly until many years after her death.”
@hilmaafklintofficial@le_grand_palais@centrepompidou #expohilmaafklint
What an amazing micro-trip to Switzerland with @j_lgallery and @roolutoo
50 years 🎉 for @cablausanne with their new show:
Art Brut in Switzerland: From the Origins of the Collection to the Present is a celebration of The Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, now operating for half a century. The concept of Art Brut dates back to the mid-20th century, when Jean Dubuffet developed an avid interest in works produced outside the confines of conventional art circles. Dubuffet coined the term in the summer of 1945, refining the concept through his subsequent reflections and discoveries – first in Switzerland, and later in France and elsewhere. This show highlights the role that Switzerland played in the emergence of a new genre that challenged prevailing categories and definitions and helped draw attention to the work of self-taught creators.
Images 1-3 Aloise Corbaz, Wolfli
Remaining images - posters from some of the iconic exhibitions on mediumistic and visionary art over the last five decades.
Happy Birthday Georgiana Houghton born on April 20th, 1814.
In 1871 she presented 155 of her spirit drawings in a solo show at the New British Gallery on Old Bond Street, London. She wrote the introduction on her birthday saying “I earnestly hope that some of the visitors to this gallery, who have leisure to devote themselves to it, will go home, and try to obtain this delightful gift, but they must bear in mind that extreme patience and perseverance are needed for all Spiritual work. In my own case, the drawing power would appear to have come with very great rapidity, but they must remember that I had already been a medium for upwards of a year and a half, after having steadily striven for it during these months. For the drawing phase I was also prepared by my own earthly training, having devoted the chief part of my life to that accomplishment.”
Georgiana sat nearly every day in the gallery wearing her day bonnet and posing as a visitor, but ready to explain to those interested in listening all about her enigmatic creations. Clergymen, artists and a microscopist showed the most interest. The critics were baffled. One said it was as if a lady’s wool basket had been tossed about with a toasting fork. Another remarked that a troop of fairies had dropped jewels across a canvas by Turner.
Looking forward to being in Cambridge this week and speaking about 19th century mediumistic art
Art History Annual Conference @forarthistory
Wednesday 8 – Friday 10 April 2026
University of Cambridge @cambridgeuniversity
Materiality of the Unseen in the Long Nineteenth Century
Thursday 9th April at 10 am Moller Institute Study Centre
The nineteenth century has often been called the “frenzy of the visible” as new theories, technologies, and artistic practices attempted to visualize the previously unseen. Motivated by a greater interest in invisible, hidden, and out-of-reach phenomena such as the climate, the non-visual senses, areas of the globe or cosmos that were generally untraversable, or health-related subjects, artists and makers experimented with ways of visualising such topics
for both specialist and general audiences…
Session Convenors:
Rosalind Hayes, Durham University and Jennifer Marine, University of Virginia
Speakers:
Richard Taws, University College London
Epistolary Drift: Underwater Post and the Siege of Paris
Tairan An, ETH Zurich, Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture
Surface Contact: Robert Mallet’s Forensic Seismology
Sophie Lynch, University of Chicago
Through Glass, Darkly: The Photographic Resolution of Celestial Nebulae
Vivienne Roberts, Independent/Freelance
Felt Presences: Women, Art and Mediumship in Britain and America in the Nineteenth Century.
SAVE THE DATE!
Louise Janin: The Echo of the Spirit through the Rhythms of Life
Curated by Simon Grant @simoncgrant and Vivienne Roberts @mediumisticart
GPS Gallery
36 Great Pulteney Street
Soho, London
W1F 9NS
Preview 2nd June 6-8pm
3 - 7th June 2026
10-6pm (Free Admission)
Image: Design by @studio.ardworks
Art Photography: Siyu Chen Lewis
Credit for photograph of Louise Janin: Thérèse Bonney - University of California, Berkeley / BHVP / Roger-Viollet
Ernest James Gerrard was born in 1875 in Ince-in-Makerfield (Lancashire) and died in 1963 in Appleton (a suburb of Warrington). He is buried in Warrington Cemetery.
Gerrard worked as an engineer/technician in the Lancashire steel industry and settled down in Lovely Lane, Warrington with his wife Mary Ann and daughter Enid. Family reports note that Ernest was a collector of antiques, a keen follower of the stock market and an accomplished linguist. He could read Latin, Greek and Arabic and taught himself French and German.
There are no reports why Gerrard became a spiritualist and a drawing medium, but his wife died in 1919 which coincided with the period in which his earliest works were created. Aside from the figurative and abstract forms, his art also shows evidence of unusual mirror writing and backwards script which he said was only possible under spirit control. A form of automatism not often found in mediumistic writing and drawing.
Ernest James Gerrard is a recent rediscovery after 32 of his artworks came up at auction in England in 2025. They found their way to Switzerland and under the guidance of Phillippe Eternod @gdmlausanne several have been placed in prominent collections throughout Europe.
Tranceducers St Ives is the first known exhibition of his works which have such incredible flow and luminosity.
Images
Armour, 1926
The Message of Grace, 1928 with poem on reverse
Untitled 1943
Meet Victor Bramley (1933-2014) who found his way to St Ives from Sheffield in 1959 and made Cornwall his home for the rest of his life. He was this part of Cornwall’s first yoga teacher and in the early 1970’s began to create a series of Mandala paintings that were exhibited at the Orion Gallery, Penzance in 1974. This was the year that the gallery amalgamated with the nearby Newlyn Gallery where Ithell Colquhoun also exhibited, showing her amazing Taro series in 1977.
When I was planning the Tranceducers show last year, I knew it had to ‘come home’ to Cornwall and so here it is - until March 20th at the Crypt Gallery, St Ives. Twenty of Victor’s original mandalas are on display along with work from 22 other like minded artists from over the last one hundred years.
The images show archival material of Victor from the 1960s and 70s in St Ives and nearby Nancledra.
Near Islington this weekend? Drop in to see this beautiful group of works by Nicole Frobusch @nicole_frobusch which are part of the Women’s Art Exhibition at the Candid Gallery in Torrens Street near Angel tube.
Expanding 2023
Cosmos 2024
Rising 2024
John Dee Monad 2026
Nicole creates her works with natural pigments and materials, many collected and ground by herself.
