NADA New York 2024

These plates are commemorative, riffing off the classic commemorative plate that your grandma might have collected of the Queen, however these plates are stranger as they depict women who lead singular lives and dealt in serious magick.

Ithell Colquhoun (1906 – 1988) is one of few female surrealists who also practiced magick, the other artists that come to mind are Remedios Varos and Leonora Carrington. However, Ithell was the most serious in her intent to incorporate magickal processes into her work. In particular, with her use of various forms of automatism. This way of “working with the other” questions the mysterious quality of material. She was an animist and part of many different magickal orders. Her magickal name was Splendidior Vitro – which means ‘more sparkling than crystal’, or ‘clearer than crystal’. So beautiful!