As Above, So Below: Portals, Visions, Spirits & Mystics

Featuring an exciting selection of modern masterworks and landmark contemporary art works by Hilma af Klint, Wassily Kandinsky, Steve McQueen, Bruce Nauman, Sigmar Polke, Cameron—many being shown for the first time in Ireland—and new commissions created specifically for this exhibition by Linder, Stephan Doitschinoff, Eoghan Ryan, Hayden Dunham and others.

Opening with a Vedic spiritual blessing at 12:15pm on Thursday, April 13, IMMA presents one of its most ambitious and compelling shows to date—As Above, So Below: Portals, Visions, Spirits & Mystics—which explores how the spiritual endures in our everyday lives. In particular this group exhibition considers the role played by certain spiritualist and alternative doctrines, such as the occult or mysticism, in the creation of abstract painting from its origins to the present digital age.

As Above, So Below is a wide-ranging overview of artists’ encounters with the spiritual, whether as true believers, sceptics or fellow-travellers. Featuring more than 200 works by over 40 artists, the exhibition presents a wide range of very different voices and geographies, spanning a hundred years from the abstract masterworks of Frantisek Kupka, to contemporary work by Susan Hiller, Nora Berman and new commissions by Matt Copson and Hayden Dunham. A number of works by contemporary artists give a global perspective on the role of spirituality in our lives today.

As Above, So Below resists becoming a comprehensive survey and is instead presented as a series of thematic chapters that each explore a different aspect of spirituality. The exhibition extends beyond the gallery space with new works made specifically for the IMMA site and a series of performances, events, talks and film screenings taking place during the exhibition.

Featured artists
Hilma af Klint / Kenneth Anger / David Beattie / Nora Berman / Annie Besant / Agnieszka Brzezanska / Alan Butler / James Lee Byars / Cameron / Marcus Coates / Ira Cohen / Ithell Colquhoun / Matt Copson / Stephan Doitschinoff / Hayden Dunham / Stephen Dunne /Susan Hiller / Koo Jeong A. / Alejandro Jodorowsky / Wassily Kandinsky / Rachid Koraïchi / Emma Kunz / Frantisek Kupka / Paul Laffoley / Liliane Lijn / Linder / Josiah McElheny / Steve McQueen / Henri Michaux / Pascale Montandon-Jodorowsky / Pádraic E. Moore (curatorial advisor) / Bruce Nauman / Austin Osman Spare / Sigmar Polke / The Propeller Group / Patrick Pye / John Russell / Eoghan Ryan / Aura Satz / Suzanne Treister / Grace Weir, amongst others.

The exhibition is curated by Sam Thorne, Director, Nottingham Contemporary, UK, and Rachael Thomas, Senior Curator: Head of Exhibitions, IMMA.

A fully-illustrated book has been published to accompany the exhibition which features contributions from Erik Davis, Jennifer Higgie, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Pascale Montandon-Jodorowsky, Dr Tina Kinsella, Linder, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Rachael Thomas, Sam Thorne and Maurice Tuchman, amongst others.

This exhibition carries an admission charge but is free to all every Tuesday. Admission is always free for IMMA Members, full-time students and under 18’s. For admission charges and to book all tickets in advance visit www.imma.ie.

This exhibition is presented as part of an exciting on-going initiative, New Art at IMMA, proudly supported by Matheson, which allows IMMA to continue to support artists’ vital work in a strand of programming that recognises and nurtures new and emerging talents, new thinking and new forms of exhibition-making.