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Follow me on instagram for news, events and thoughts on the art I love.

mediumisticart

Curating, writing/researching and collecting enigmatic art.
Next Exhibition: Tranceducers
@madge.gill @georgianahoughton
Based in London

Braving the blistering heat of Paris I headed to t Braving the blistering heat of Paris I headed to the Grand Palais for the Art Brut exhibition: La collection Bruno Decharme which is in honour of the 800 works of art collected from the 1970s and recently gifted to @centrepompidou a 

It was a joy and of course the ‘Dancing with Spirits’ section was my happy place. 

Images.
 #františekjaroslavpecka 
#hélènesmith 
#josefatolrà 
#fernanddesmoulin 
#ceciliemarková 
#addaducháčová 
#annazemánková 
#SlavkaLelková
#leonpetitjean 
#augustinlesage 
#madgegill
#jeannetripier 
#raphaëllonné 
#chelo
#hugodalesi
#josephcrépin 

#artbrut #grandpalaisparis #mediumisticart #spiritdrawings
I took a break from planning the Tranceducers exhi I took a break from planning the Tranceducers exhibition to have a wander around the City of London. It included the delights of the Evelyn de Morgan: The Modern Painter in Victorian London exhibition at the Guildhall Gallery. @guildhallartlondon @demorganfoundation 

You can enter for free or make a donation. 

Earlier this year I saw the Evelyn de Morgan Painted Dreams show at the Wolverhampton Gallery which reimagined her groundbreaking 1907 exhibition at the same venue. The Guildhall show has a different feeling - much lighter due to the building’s sky lights. It also differs in covering Evelyn’s entire career. 

Feeling inspired - I returned to my exhibition planning. 

#evelyndemorgan #evelynpickeringdemorgan #symbolismart #spiritualinart #spiritualism
My upcoming exhibition Tranceducers – Art of Visio My upcoming exhibition Tranceducers - Art of Visionaries, Mediums and Automatists is opening on July 29th in London and I’m beyond delighted to introduce in this post slides of the 24 participating artists:

Melissa alley @melissa__alley 
Victor Bramley
Etty Buzyn
Ithell Colquhoun #ithellcolquhoun 
Madge Gill @madge.gill 
Amy Grantham @_amygrantham 
Georgiana Houghton @georgianahoughton 
Anna Howitt Watts
Greg Humphries @greghumphriesart 
Aleksandra Ionowa @aleksandraionowa 
Louise Janin
Nnena Kalu @actionspace @arcadiamissa 
Josef Kotzian
Cara Macwilliam @caramacwilliam_art 
Cecilie Marková
Marianne Mccarthy @marianne.mccarthy 
Allen o2o Moore @alano_o2o 
Jacque Moran
Chris Neate @mistertoad1 
Grace Pailthorpe
František Jaroslav Pecka
Kate Southworth @kate_southworth 
Sue Williams A’court @suewilliamsacourt 
Henriette Zéphir

#tranceducers #visionaries #mediumisticart #automatism #visionaryart #automaticdrawing #manticstain #greatwomenartists #exhibition #artist #artexhibitions
Favourites from the @tate #Ithellcolquhoun exhibit Favourites from the @tate #Ithellcolquhoun exhibition. Although advertised with the Edward Burra show and cost of the ticket covers both, the shows are completely separate so thoughts of comparing them aren’t necessary. I was happy to just immerse myself in Ithell’s world and enjoyed it just as much as the St Ives show earlier this year. 

#automaticdrawing #automatism #surrealism #magicrealismart #visionarywomen #greatwomenartists #livingstones #manticstain #cornwall #visionaryart #tate #tatebritain #decalcomanie #decalcomania
I’m so happy to have caught the last hour of thi I’m so happy to have caught the last hour of this incredible exhibition:

Slipping the Veil curated by Elena Unger @eileen_unger and James Freeman @jamesfreemangallery at St Bartholomew the Great - one of the City of London’s greatest churches. 

Artists include: 
Ben Jamie - Diana Orving - Carolein Smit - Elena Unger - Kate McDonnell - Anne von Freyburg - Maxim Burnett - Juliette Losq - Claire Curneen - Nick Cave - Jack Evans - Edgar Ward

“The works in this exhibition are chosen not just as objects, but as presences that bring their own sense of life into the space. Each piece plays with the idea of the “living stone,” of materials that watch and respond, creating new dialogues within the framework of this ancient building. Some works make use of relics and discarded fragments, reconfiguring them in ways that emphasize continuity, transformation, and communion across time. Others create immersive encounters architectures of sound, image, and material that, like Saint Bartholomew’s itself, have the capacity to transport.

In bringing together these works, we return to a fascination with the Gothic, to a longing for spaces where the known meets the unknown and where art, architecture, and viewer are all complicit in creating an encounter with the transcendent. Why do we seek out this space, this collision between the animate and the inanimate? Why do we feel drawn to places that hold the weight of centuries, that seem to transcend their own materiality? Perhaps it’s because these spaces and these artworks remind us of something crucial: that art, architecture, and space are never static. They are alive with possibility, existing in a state of perpetual becoming, constantly forming new relationships with the people who pass through them. And in that encounter-between viewer and space, art and architecture, past and present—we, too, become something different. In this sense, Saint Bartholomew’s and the works within it are both haunted and haunting, slipping the veil of time to offer us a momentaty glimpse of the timeless. They are, simply put, places where the ordinary fades, and we are left with the sublime, the uncanny, the living.”
Paulina Peavy (1901-1999 ) has arrived in Europe! Paulina Peavy (1901-1999 ) has arrived in Europe! On a whistle stop trip to Paris I made a beeline for this fabulous new show at the @emanuelacampoligallery 

Curated by Vera Alemani, this is the first European retrospective exhibition of Peavy which spans from 1930 to 1980. 

Peavy was an American artist, inventor, philosopher, and spiritualist whose visionary work intertwined art, metaphysics, science and ufology. In 1932, during a séance in Santa Ana, California, she encountered a spirit guide called Lacamo who became her life-long companion. The collaboration resulted in an incredible body of art that has been widely in the US, but lesser known elsewhere.

Some of these jewel-like works are incredibly labour intensive, worked on over years building up layers resulting in an enamelesqe finish. Others are more immediate such as Peavy’s Smokies which are created using the technique of fumage akin to the mantic stains of Ithell Colquhoun. 

Following her encounter with Lacamo, Peavy began wearing handmade masks during painting sessions and in public trance demonstrations to facilitate deeper trance states. Several of them are on display and they symbolise a veil between Peavy’s physical world to Lacomo’s metaphysical, a liminal space conducive to an amplification of Lacamo’s messages. 

Go see!!!!

#paulinapeavy @paulinapeavyofficial @emanuelacampoligallery @veraalemani @andrewedlingallery
Just coming back down to reality after a magical w Just coming back down to reality after a magical weekend in the beautiful Swiss Alpine valley of Val Fex in Engadin for the colloquium Ghosts in the Machine: Mediums and Media organised by the Beatrice Trussardi Foundation and Massimiliano Gioni. An utterly memorable weekend of discussions with guests and presentations on mediumistic and visionary art by Jennifer Higgie, Julia Voss, Daniel Birnbaum, James Brett and myself along with starry night walks or sunny mountainous climbs overlooking crystal clear lakes and incredible immersive experiences by artists Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg. 

Thank you @jennifer_higgie for the photo of my talk.
Aleksandra Ionowa – Visions of the Spirit World an Aleksandra Ionowa - Visions of the Spirit World and Peace exhibition will end on June 1st so be quick if you plan to see it. Curated by @ninakokkinen in association with @aleksandraionowa Society and @gallenkallelan_museo it is a wonderful insight into the life and art of this remarkable visionary woman. 

To coincide with the show there is also a beautifully designed book (Finnish language) that I am honoured to be included as one of the contributors.  My essay called Women who draw with the Spirits explores how Ionowa is situated within the context of international mediumistic and visionary art. 

See image 2 for a flick through of the book

For those of you that cannot make the exhibition in Finland come to my #Tranceducers show from 29th July to 10th August in Soho, London this summer where there will be a selection of Aleksandra’s drawings on display. 

#aleksandraionowa #visionaryart #visionarywomen #womeninarthistory #mediumisticart #theosophy #spiritdrawings
My new group show – Tranceducers: Art of Visionari My new group show - Tranceducers: Art of Visionaries, Mediums and Automatists is going to be from 29th July to 10th August 2025 in Soho, London ✨Save the date✨ 

Plans are still in motion so more details soon. In the meantime here is a preview of some more artworks that will be included. 

#tranceducers
I love the early stages of planning for exhibition I love the early stages of planning for exhibitions. Selecting the works, frame choices, imagining the hang and for me the highlight is the hours poring over archival material. Here’s a glimpse of the show I’m planning at the moment called Tranceducers. 

Mandalas, cosmic wonders, stellargraphs and ESP made visible from 1965-85. I can’t wait and I’ll keep you posted with updates. 

#tranceducers
It was wonderful to be enlightened and inspired by It was wonderful to be enlightened and inspired by so many great sessions at the Art History @forarthistory Conference at York University last week. Highlights for me were Art, Esotericism and the Ecological Imagination chaired by Michelle Foot including a presentation by Emily Leon called ‘An Exploration of Spirit Art: Mediumism and Plant-Human Entanglement. Also Natasha V. Moody’s @nvmoody incredible experimental performance and story-telling presentation of Ghostwood - where she is guided by plants found in the ancient woods of South London - most of which has been built upon by urban sprawl over the decades. Natasha’s beautiful descriptions were accompanied by plants in glass plates projected onto the screen in the darkened room giving the impression of the artist as a medium in a seance of botanical delights - shining light on the magical messages that plants have to impart.

Glass plates full of wonder was also the topic of my other favourite presentation - Jennifer Marine’s presentation on the fabulous Welsh Victorian singer Margaret Watts Hughes who made visible the sound of her voice by the use of her invention she called an Eidophone. With the use of coloured pigment and glass she was able to capture the sound vibrations and create astounding images that struck awe into scientific, artistic and esoteric Victorian society. 

#arthistorian #arthistory #womeninarthistory
In the beautiful city of York for the @forarthisto In the beautiful city of York for the @forarthistory conference and caught this great show by @harlandmillers at the @yorkartgallery 

HARLAND MILLER: XXX
Born in York in 1964, Harland Miller is internationally recognised as one of the leading figures in contemporary British painting. Inspired by his upbringing in 1970s Yorkshire, and an itinerant lifestyle in New York, New Orleans, Berlin and Paris during the 1980s and ‘90s, Miller creates colourful and graphically vernacular works that convey his lifelong love of language. As he states: “the subject of and for my work over the last twenty years has been writing in all its forms and associations ... and books, that actual physical form in which written narrative, ideas and theory most commonly appear.”
Best known today for his large-scale, meticulously detailed paintings, Miller first achieved critical acclaim in 2000 for his debut novel, “Slow Down Arthur, Stick to Thirty’. The following year, he began to make paintings that consciously combined text and abstraction, using book covers as a graphic device to structure his compositions. Attesting to his deep-rooted engagement with the narrative, aural and typographical possibilities of language, Miller expresses: “People read before they can stop themselves, it’s automatic. Words offer a way into what you’re looking at, but no matter how integrated the text is, no matter how much you might think it’s synthesised into the painting, there is this imbalance in terms of how much the words are doing as words.” Miller’s recent ‘Letter Paintings’ - which this exhibition explores — take a single, short word as the focus for gestural and hard-edged abstraction. Drawing inspiration from illuminated medieval manuscripts, these boldly saturated paintings reference American artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Ed Ruscha.
@whitecube
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