Delve into the enigmatic world of the Eleusinian Mysteries! This video explores the ancient Greek rituals, their connection to the cult of Demeter and Persephone, and the potential role of psychedelic substances like the “kykeon” in inducing altered states of consciousness. We’ll examine the archaeological evidence, historical accounts, and philosophical interpretations of these sacred rites, uncovering the mysteries surrounding death, rebirth, and the pursuit of esoteric knowledge in ancient Greece.
The Eleusinian Mysteries: A Journey into Altered States of Consciousness in Classical Greece
What secrets did the ancient cult of Demeter hold that still captivates us today? Join me as I dive deep into the secrets of Demeter’s ancient cult and try to uncover the Eleusinian Mysteries!
The sanctuary of Eleusis is a town about 14 miles northwest of Athens today. This place was of vast importance to the spiritual life of ancient Greeks. Pagan culture was the origin of the pre-Christian faith in ancient Greece, as thousands of people attended the Eleusian Mysteries on the fall equinox. In their secret rituals, ancient people worshiped Demeter, the goddess of nature and agriculture, with her daughter, Persephone, from 1500 BC until 392 AD. During the peak of the ceremonies, thousands of initiates would consume the kykeon drink, believed to be a mixture of wine, barley, and possibly hallucinogenic substances such as ergot ( LSD), leading to a sense of collective experience and unity among the followers of goddess Demeter. The communion with spirits was a secretive ceremony and transformative experience in relationship to death and rebirth. Aristotle said that people came to Eleusis not to learn something but to experience something. Today, the sanctuary is a small place of broken stones and columns with an adjacent museum showing some pottery, computer installations, and antiquities found during the excavations.
The temple of Eleusis & cult of Demeter, broken parts of the outer colonnade portico depicting the cult symbols of Demeter – rosette, corn, ritual vessel “kern”, and a dedicated inscription. Photo: Veronica Winters
The Eleusinian Mysteries: Historical Mysteries and the Search for Lost Knowledge
The pagan ritual of the sanctuary appeared in the Mycenaean Era (16th-13th BC) to end around the 4th century AD.
Triptolemos and Persephone, tondo of a red-figure Attic cup, ca. 470 BC–460 BC. Notice, that Triptolemos is riding a chariot with winged snakes. More on that below.
The Eleusinian Mysteries and the Cult of Demeter: A Study of Death, Rebirth, and the Afterlife in the Greek Myth of Demeter & Persephone
Lower part of a marble relief with two goddesses Demeter and Persephone, Roman, 1st–2nd century CE, Adaptation of the Great Eleusinian Relief of ca. 450–425 B.C. Pentelic marble relief found in Eleusis. The altarlike incense burner between them must be an addition of the Roman copyist. http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/251527
Dressed in rich, tyrian purple clothes, Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, had a beautiful daughter named Persephone. One day, while picking flowers that made her unconscious, Persephone was abducted by Hades, the god of the underworld. Demeter, heartbroken and distraught, searched for her daughter in vain. As a punishment to Zeus who gave her daughter away to his brother, she neglected the earth, causing crops to wither and die. Zeus, the king of the gods, intervened and negotiated a compromise with Hades. Persephone ate the seeds of pomegranate and would spend six months of the year in the underworld with Hades and the other six months on Earth with her mother. This myth explains the cycle of seasons: when Persephone is with Demeter, the earth flourishes, representing spring and summer. When she is in the underworld, the earth becomes barren, symbolizing autumn and winter.
Marble relief of Triptolemos, Demeter and Persephone. Archaeological Museum of Eleusis, Greece. | Photo: Veronica Winters
The winged serpent or snake
The term “Ophis Pterotos” (Ὄφις Πτερωτός) literally translates to “Winged Serpent” in ancient Greek. In ancient Greek myths we can see some chariots run by the snakes (Medea in a chariot, Cleveland Museum of Art) or Triptolemos riding a winged snake chariot here.
Some scholars suggest that the Winged Serpent was more of a philosophical and mystical concept rather than a specific mythological beast. It embodied ideas of wisdom, transformation, and the ability to transcend physical limitations – much like the snake’s ability to shed its skin and seemingly be reborn. The winged snake represented divine wisdom, transformation, immortality and transcendence. It signified the connection between earthly and divine realms, which makes a lot of sense in terms of the Eleusian Mysteries.
The snake also associated with mystical and philosophical concepts, being depicted in the caduceus of Hermes (the herald’s wand with two intertwined snakes) and connected to concepts of healing and regeneration as Asclepius (the god of medicine) was often depicted with a snake. Influenced by ancient Greek culture, the Romans copied and adopted art, symbols and myths. In Roman times the snake symbol represented Immortality. We can view many golden bracelets in the shape of a snake in archeological museums.
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/254270 : Attributed to the Niobid Painter, Terracotta hydria: kalpis (water jar), ca. 460-450 B.C., Terracotta, H. 10 15/16 in. (27.7 cm); diameter 8 7/8 in. (22.6 cm); width with handles 10 15/16 in. (27.8 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Rogers Fund, 1941 (41.162.98) The Niobid Painter is famous for depictions of mythological scenes on large pots. In this smaller pot, the artist depicts Triptolemos dispatched by the goddess Demeter, the patroness of fertility and agriculture, and her daughter, Persephone, to teach the cultivation of grain to humanity. Winged chariot is run by snakes.
The Eleusinian Mysteries: Historical Mysteries and the Search for Lost Knowledge:
While there are no direct sources about the secrets behind the Eleusian Mysteries, several writers mention the secrecy of rites, like the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. It’s a recording of Persephone’s abduction by Pluto and how Demeter searched for her daughter. A poem of about 500 verses, titled the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, was recorded around 600 BC. Sophocles, Herodotus, Aristophanes, and Plutarch, mention the Eleusinian Mysteries, often alluding to their transformative power and the sacred knowledge imparted to initiates. Philosophers like Plato and Aristotle also reference the Mysteries.
“Ancient Greeks had no holy books. Religion was taught through the act of worship. The essence of the Mysteries was individual initiation once in a lifetime. Those who chose to participate in the process were guaranteed happiness after death. The secretive nature of the mystery has resonated with metaphysical trends from Antiquity to the Renaissance and from Romanticism to the New Age movements.” – The Archaeological Museum of Elefsina
Ten marble fragments of the Great Eleusinian Relief, Roman copy of Greek original, 27 BCE–14 CE . The ten fragments have been set into a cast of the original relief. The original marble relief was unearthed at the site of the Eleusinian mysteries. There are several existing Roman copies of this relief. One of the copies is displayed in a dark interior space of the archeological museum in Eleusis.
Here the goddess of agriculture, Demeter, holds a scepter and stands on the left. She’s dressed in classical Greek clothing – peplos and himation (cloak). Her daughter, Persephone, is on the right of the relief. According to Greek myth, she is the wife of Hades, the god of the underworld. She wears a chiton and himation. Both goddesses reach out to a nude boy, Triptolemos, who was a student of Demeter and the first man to learn the mystic rites, rituals, and grain production. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/248899
Triptolemos | http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/254912 : Attributed to the Troilos Painter, Terracotta hydria (water jar), ca. 490 B.C., Terracotta, H. 14 1/16 in. (35.7 cm); diameter mouth 6 in. (15.3 cm); diameter foot 5 1/4 in. (13.3 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Fletcher Fund, 1956 (56.171.53)
Demeter was worshiped for roughly 2000 years celebrating life as over 60% of Greeks died from disease, violence, slavery, and hardship. Nearly half of the children died before the age of 5. Greeks asked Gods for good harvests to survive. Therefore, Triptolemos was the messenger of the goddess helping people grow grain. He was often shown as an adult riding a winged chariot on Athenian vases as you can see here.
The image of a Greek Sphinx is depicted on a funerary vase found in Eleusis. Sphinxes were the symbolic guardians of the underworld and vases contained bones of children who probably died because of famine in Eleusis. Eleusis Museum, Photo: Veronica Winters
The Archeology of the Eleusinian Mysteries: A Study of Sacred Space and Ritual
In Mycenaean Eleusis (16th-13th BC), grave offerings were made of precious metals that indicated the deceased’s status. These were bronze weapons and tools, or silver and gold jewelry. In contrast, in the Mycenaean world, schematic figurines with arms folded or raised (Ф – type or Ψ – type) are found in abundance. They are considered symbols of a protective female deity or as children’s toys.
Examples of the Mycenaean era excavations
The Antiquarian Society of Dilettanti made the first scientific investigations of the Eleusinian Sanctuary during Ottoman rule. Sir William Gell and the architects John Peter Grandy and Francis Redford led an expedition to Eleusis in 1812 and found the remains of the Telestirion.
Leadership & support of the Sanctuary of Eleusis in ancient Greece: Athens’ leaders supported its relationship with the Eleusinian Sanctuary for economic and political reasons and used the prestige of the Eleusinian Mysteries in their diplomacy. During the Roman period, the Sanctuary emerged as a religious and political center of universal importance. The Roman emperors, who were initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, favored the Sanctuary greatly. For instance, during the reign of Hadrian, Antoninus the Pious, and Marcus Aurelius, the sanctuary experienced a wave of new construction with monumental architecture, including the Great Propylaia, triumphal arches, Temple of Propylaia Artemis, and paved entrance courtyard with the fountain.
The end: With the arrival of Christianity and the decree issuance of Emperor Theodosius I, in 392 AD, the worship of Goddess Demeter ceased to exist with a permanent closing of the sanctuary of Eleusis. The hordes of Alaric, in 395 AD, leveled it to the ground and killed the last Hierophant (priest) there.
The Eleusinian Mysteries: Did the Ancient Greeks Use Psychedelics to Achieve Transcendence in sacred ceremonies of the cult of goddess Demeter?
You died before you died and so didn’t die.
According to the museum, the beginning of the cult or worship emerged in the late geometric period. The oracle of Delphi ordered the Athenians to offer sacrifices to the goddess Demeter after a great famine spread throughout Greece in the 8th century BC. The sacrifice would appease the goddess to make the land fertile again. This oracle was given during the 5th Olympiad (760 BC).
Sacred ceremonies or the Eleusinian Mysteries were a multi-day, series of initiations into the cult of Demeter and Persephone that took place in absolute secrecy. It was the culminating experience of a lifetime. The first initiation began in Athens and then the procession continued in Eleusis through the Sacred Way as a journey. People of all classes participated in it including Emperors, free men, prostitutes, and slave men. ThisEleusinianRoad is an ancient road that began at the Sacred Gate of the Athenian wall and ended at the sanctuary in Eleusis. The religious procession to Eleusis used this road decorated with gardens, fruit trees, country shrines, altars, cemeteries, and funerary monuments set along the ancient path. They passed through a purposefully narrow bridge as a symbolic space between worlds of life and death.
Painted terracotta votive plaque, Attic work by a painter named Ninion, mid-4th century CE, discovered at the sanctuary of Eleusis. Image:wikimedia commons
The figures sit in two rows. At the top, Demeter is seated on the “secret cist”. Persephone stands holding a torch and the torchbearer Iakchos is located below, welcoming the procession of initiates, men and women, who arrive at the sanctuary. In the middle of the lower row, the omphalos adorned with a crown and two crossed bakchoi, symbols of the ritual mysteries. The third deity, at the bottom right, is not identified with certainty. The pediment depicts the participants of the pannychis, the night feast, where a flute player, on the left, accompanies them. All the participants are crowned and hold flowering branches and sticks, while the women have the kernos, the sacred vessel, fixed on their heads. National Archaeological Museum, Athens.
The Role of Sacred Plants in the Eleusinian Mysteries: A Psychedelic Perspective
The Eleusian Mysteries consisted of a pagan ritual with the body’s purification, procession to the Telesterion, consumption of kykeon, and profound revelations following afterward.
Painted terracotta votive plaque, Ninion, mid-4th century CE, discovered at the sanctuary of Eleusis. The women (priestesses?) have the kernos, the sacred vessel, fixed on their heads.
The use of psychoactive substances is a debatable subject because there is no direct archeological evidence of the use. However, the magic potion seems to be the hidden truth behind the secret rites. It’s based on the extensive research of several scholars including Carl Ruck, an American professor who researched entheogens’ role in mythology and religion and first shared his research in a book “The Road to Eleusis” in 1978. Some psychoactive plants are known for inducing altered states of consciousness, letting people experience a fundamental change in psychic to communicate with God.
“The Road to Eleusis” book discusses psychoactive entheogens and the original meaning of some ancient Greek myths and gods, especially Dionysus, the God of Wine. The authors narrate the hypothesis of a magic drink potion recipe that could have contained ash mixed with other ingredients. The drink had a secret formula but was fairly easy to make every year regardless of the harvest. There is a chapter in this book dedicated to a narration of a beautiful Hymn to Demeter, an anonymous poem from the 7th century BC. In this poem, we learn about Persephone picking flowers in the fields of Nisa before the abduction. The companion of the maiden was named Pharmacia, with the name’s translation as ‘the use of drugs’. In the book, the authors think that Persephone had a drug-induced seizure during the abduction by Hades.
In his book, “The Immortality Key”, Brian Muraresku shares his research about sacred beverages consumed during the Eulesian mysteries. He studied ancient pots that revealed traces of hallucinogenic substances like ergot (LSD) in beer potions. Fragments of ergot were discovered in a temple and within the dental calculus of an individual, suggesting its consumption.
Kernos or kernoi (in plural) are ritual vessels, images are from the archeological site in Eleusis. The kernos is a terracotta vessel with many little bowls surrounding it. A concoction of herbs, wheat, olive oil, and other ingredients was inside it to taste. A lamp probably topped the vessel. The priestesses carried these ritual vessels atop their heads during the procession at the Eleusinian Mysteries as we can see in a plaque above.
Some scholars believe that a drink called kykeon, which was consumed by the initiates, contained psychoactive ingredients, which may have been made from barley or rye that was infected with ergot, a fungus that produces lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). It was a carefully balanced brew of alcohol, herbs, spices, and ergot. Other possible ingredients include wild mushrooms or opium poppies. Only women prepared the drink, which gave the users transcendent experiences.
Kykeon: A drink consumed by initiates, thought to contain psychoactive ingredients. Ergot: A fungus that grows on grains, containing LSD-like alkaloids. Fragments of ergot have been found in a temple dedicated to the Eleusinian goddesses, providing evidence for its potential use. Psilocybin Mushrooms: Some scholars speculate that these mushrooms were used due to their hallucinogenic properties.
The descriptions of the Mysteries by ancient authors suggest that the initiates experienced visions and altered states of consciousness during the Eleusinian Mysteries. However, plant medicine was not limited to the Eleusinian Mysteries. Ancient Greeks used a variety of substances for medicinal, religious, and recreational purposes. While some drank a holy beer, others consumed the holy wine of Dionysus to become one with the god in ancient Greece. These substances included opium poppy, cannabis, and wine.
In the book The Road to Eleusis, the authors describe the original meaning of wine and the god Dyonasis and how different formulas for the dilution of wine with water had varied effects on people. The word “drunkenness” in Greek meant a state of complete Madness, and the authors think that the drinks contained psychotropic compounds mixed with water, herbs, and spices.
What is ergot?
Ergot is a fungal growth that primarily affects rye and other cereal grasses. Ergot appears as a dark, elongated, hard structure called a sclerotium that replaces the grain (kernel) of rye, wheat, barley, and other grasses. These sclerotia are:
Dark purple to black in color
Hard and dense
Elongated and curved, often described as “horn-like”
Typically about 1-2 centimeters long
Somewhat similar in shape to a narrow, blackened grain of the host plant
In the field, an infected grain head will look abnormal, with these dark, hardened ergot bodies replacing some or many of the normal grains. During harvest, these ergot bodies can be mixed in with the grain, making them a potential health hazard if not carefully removed.
The fungus (Claviceps purpurea) is particularly notorious because the ergot sclerotia contains powerful alkaloids that can be extremely toxic to humans and animals if consumed. Historically, ergot poisoning (called ergotism) caused serious health problems and even contributed to social upheavals in medieval Europe when contaminated rye bread caused widespread illness. Farmers and agricultural experts carefully monitor crops for signs of ergot, as its presence can render an entire grain harvest unusable and potentially dangerous.
A Window into the History of Mystery Religion, Mysticism and Ancient Spirituality in Ancient Greece: The Greek Magical Papyri
The Greek Magical Papyri is a collection of ancient spells and rituals that were probably combined with natural plants written down in the papyri to create ‘magic’ and let people enter the hidden world of altered reality. This was a literal “magician book”. Some herbs like wormwood (contained in the 19th-century French absinthe) and nightshade were probably mixed into incense or ink to inhale and make a potent spell using the book. It makes me think of fairy tales with Baba Yaga and powerful magicians stirring green liquids in their pots and cauldrons.
Discovered in Egypt, the Greek Magical Papyri are a collection of ancient texts, primarily written in Greek, that contain a variety of magical spells, incantations, and rituals. These papyri, dating from the 100s BCE to the 400s CE, offer a glimpse into the mystical and religious beliefs of the Greco-Roman world. The papyri include spells for love, wealth, health, protection, and harm. They also contain hymns for various deities, incantations for summoning spirits, and astral magic and theurgy rituals. The texts reflect a syncretistic blend of Greek, Egyptian, and other religious traditions. They incorporate elements from Greek mythology, Egyptian deities, and other magical systems. Many spells and rituals are intended for practical purposes, such as healing the sick, driving away evil spirits, or gaining wealth. Some texts describe theurgical practices, involving direct communication with divine beings through mystical experiences and rituals. Astrology plays a significant role in many magical practices, with the alignment of celestial bodies considered crucial for successful spells and rituals.
The Greek Magical Papyri list a wide variety of plants used in their spells and rituals. Here are some of the plants that are commonly mentioned:
Peony: Often used in love spells and potions. Lily: Associated with beauty, love, and fertility. Laurel: Symbolizing victory, purification, and prophetic power. Olive: Connected to peace, wisdom, and healing. Poppy: Associated with sleep, death, and dreams. Rue: Used for protection, purification, and healing. Thyme: Associated with courage, strength, and purification. Mint: Used for purification, healing, and love magic. Garlic: A powerful protective herb, often used to ward off evil spirits. Onion: Associated with fertility, protection, and healing. Fig: Symbolizing abundance, prosperity, and fertility. Pomegranate: Connected to fertility, rebirth, and the underworld.
Toxic and sometimes fatal, Mandrake was used as an anesthetic, and pain reliever that treated insomnia and other ailments. Due to its human-like root shape, the mandrake was often associated with fertility, love, and protection. It was used in love potions, fertility charms, and protective amulets.
Wormwood, or Artemisia absinthium, was used to enhance the spells. Due to its bitter taste and strong aroma, wormwood was often associated with protection and purification. It was used in spells and rituals to ward off evil spirits, induce visions, and enhance psychic abilities. It was burned as incense to purify spaces and connect with the divine.
Toxic Henbane was used to relieve pain, induce sleep, and calm anxiety. It was also employed in the treatment of mental disorders. Henbane was considered a powerful hallucinogenic and was used in divination and spiritual practices. It was also used in potions and spells for love, protection, and harm.
Nightshade plants, particularly Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade) were deadly if misused. Yet, the plant’s alkaloids were applied to alleviate pain, particularly during childbirth and surgery. It could also induce sleep and calm anxiety. The plant’s psychoactive properties were exploited in various rituals and spiritual practices. The plant’s potent alkaloids can cause a range of symptoms, including hallucinations, delirium, and even death.
Ancient Greeks used opium to alleviate suffering from various ailments, like a lack of sleep, to calm anxiety, and to treat diarrhea. Opium was likely used in religious ceremonies, particularly those associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries, where it may have been ingested to induce altered states of consciousness, to facilitate prophetic dreams and visions.
The Greek Magical Papyri & its spells
It’s filled with a variety of spells, each designed for a specific purpose. Some examples include:
Love Spells:
Love Charm for Immediate Effect: This spell involves writing holy names with the blood of a black donkey on a seashell and reciting a formula to attract a specific person.
Eternal Love Spell: This spell, invoking the god Iabo, uses magical words and symbols to secure the eternal love of a woman.
Protection Spells:
Protection Against Enemies: This spell involves writing a specific formula on a piece of papyrus and wearing it as an amulet.
Protection from Evil Spirits: This spell involves burning incense and reciting specific incantations to ward off evil spirits.
Divination Spells:
Dream Incubation: This spell involves specific rituals and prayers to induce prophetic dreams.
Scrying: This spell involves gazing into a reflective surface, such as water or a mirror, to receive visions and messages from the divine.
Healing Spells:
Healing Wounds: This spell involves applying a specific ointment to the wound and reciting a healing incantation.
Curing Illness: This spell involves specific rituals and the use of herbs and amulets to cure various illnesses.
The benefits of psychedelics
Today, psychedelics have a negative connotation because they fall under the general umbrella of ‘drug use’ and are considered to be hallucinogens. However, different ancient cultures have used various plant medicines for centuries to heal the soul, elevate fears of death, and provide a transformative experience that lasts a lifetime. While plant medicine is not for schizophrenic minds, it’s far from being a mere hallucination. Rather, it’s a powerful, non-addictive substance that can cure your soul by traveling deep inside yourself into a parallel reality where you learn who you truly are.
The Architecture of the Eleusinian Mysteries: A Study of Sacred Space and Ritual
Most of the following descriptions come from the grounds & museum at the archeological site of Eleusis. I fixed the text for better English.
The Telesterion of Eleusis: Exploring the Architectural Features of a Sacred Initiation Site
The most significant structure within the Sanctuary was the Telesterion, a large, underground hall where the initiates would gather for the final and most sacred part of the ritual. The Telesterion or the “Hall of Initiation” was designed to accommodate thousands of people, with its Doric columns, mosaic floors, and a central aisle leading to the Anaktoron, the holy chamber for sacred objects’ safekeeping. This large, underground hall gathered people to perform the most sacred rites.
The oldest excavated remains date to the Mycenaean period (1600-1100 BC) and belong to a rectangular megaroid building known as the “Megaron B.” It had two columns along the central axis and a portico with stairs on its façade. What we see today are the leftovers from the construction in the 5th century BC.
Plan of Eleusis with the Telesterion in the center. By Zde – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55707754
In the early 6th century BC, the Solonian Telesterion with a rectangular main temple appeared in the same location. Because of the continuous growth of the reputation and worshippers at the Sanctuary in the late 6th century BC, a new building emerged at the same location. The location was always sacred to worshippers because it had been indicated by the goddess Demeter in the ancient myth. This large and richly decorated building had the name of the Telesterion of Peisistratus. It retained its features in later Greco-Roman construction periods. The architectural remains visible today relate to the Telesterion of the classical period (5th century BC), the Portico of Philo (4th century BC), and the Roman modifications (2nd century AD).
Designed by the Eleusinian architect Philo, the Portico of Philo was attached to the east façade. Built on a strong foundation, its floor was paved with Eleusinian limestone. Created in the doric order style, the building consisted of twelve columns on the façade and two on the narrow sides, of which only parts of the lower drums are preserved. In 170 AD, the Costoboci invaders burnt down the Telesterion. During the years of emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180 AD), classical-style Telesterion was reconstructed with some extension. During the Roman period, two stairs were cut in the rock that led to an elongated square of the Upper Court, 70m long and 11,45m wide.
Visible architectural remains mainly relate to the Telesterion of the classical period (5th century BC), which the architect of the Parthenon, Ictinus planned. Due to construction difficulties and Pericles’ death, his plan was not executed to a great extent and the construction study was assigned to three architects, Coroibos, Metagenes, and Xenocles.
The classical Telesterion looked like a square hall with Doric columns. Its sides measured about 51,50m. A colonnaded porch on the East side had 12 doric columns and 8 rows of rock steps. Artificially constructed stone blocks were arranged along four sides of the hall to seat the initiates who attended the sacred enactments. 42 columns supported the building’s roof. Lighter columns were superimposed over them to reach the ceiling. The center of the roof had a raised lightwell to illuminate the interior space of the building.
View of the Sanctuary of Demeter with the Telesterion’s shape from Google EarthView of the Telesterion from the museum’s site
The Anactoron (The House of God), a small, rectangular space dedicated to the safekeeping of sacred cult objects was located in the hall’s center. Only the highest priest, the so-called Hierophant could enter this space to reveal the holy objects to the initiates during the night of the Eleusian Mysteries. The Hierophant’s throne was situated outside the entrance to the Anactoron. The worshippers also gathered in the Sacred Court that extended along the Telesterion’s three sides. It had altars and numerous dedications to participate in the sacred rites.
The initiates observed the law of silence throughout antiquity, which forbade them from revealing what happened in the Telesterion. Testimonies of the secretive performances are vague but reveal reenactments, drama, and mystical indoctrination. The main initiation occurred in the Telesterion on the 6th & 7th days of the mysterious nights. Only those initiated the previous year could become supervisors (epoptes). The 8th day was dedicated to libations with liquid offerings in ritual vessels for the underworld gods and the dead. The return was on the 9th day. The initiates would return home, scattered into smaller groups.
Funerary Proto-Attic Amphora with a depiction of the blinding of the cyclops Polyphemus by Odysseus and his companions, 670-660 BCE, Eleusis, Veronica Winters art blog
The Roman Court of Eleusis
The spacious, square court stood in front of the main entrance of the Eleusian sanctuary. Paved with large marble rectangular slabs, it was 65m long by 40m wide. The Sacred Way ended at the court area. The preserved foundations of a semicircular building formed the Exedra from where the dignitaries of the Sanctuary attended the arrival of the worshippers. The Roman court was bordered by a portico, a fountain, and a triumphal arch on its East side. The second triumphal arch stood on the West side. An L-shaped portico bordered the rest of the west side of the court. High-quality materials and construction of the Roman court indicate general oversight of the Roman Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD). The construction program continued under Antoninus Pius (138-161 AD) and was completed under Marcus Aurelius (161-180 AD).
The wall of Lycurgus is a wall associated with the Athenian logographer Lycurgus, who is said to have worked to improve the security and splendor of Athens. However, the construction of the Eleusis enclosurewall predates Lycurgus’s time and was built in the 4th century BC. Located farther away from the temple of Demeter, this new, 2.55-meter thick, defense wall was built with the so-called isodomic building masonry system imitating the earlier Periclean wall. It consisted of two-colored stones, greyish-blue Eleusinian limestone, and yellow-red blocks. It had two towers, a round one and a square tower, protecting the main entrance to the sanctuary from the sea.
The Little Propylaea of Eleusis
Propylaea is the name given to monumental gates or entranceways to a temple or religious complex. It acts as a symbolic partition between the secular and spiritual parts of a city.
19th-century drawing of propylaea in Athens. Image in public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=156815
The main entrance to the Sanctuary of Eleusis consisted of a monumental gateway that was rebuilt over the earlier version of the North Gate. When the Greater Propylaea was constructed as the main entrance, the Gateway became the Lesser Propylaea or the inner entrance to the Sanctuary. According to a Latin inscription on its architrave, a Roman consul Appius Claudius Pulcher dedicated it to the goddesses Demeter and Persephone in 54 BC.
The edifice consisted of two colonnades of porticoes. They were separated by a transverse wall with a double door that opened into the inner portico. Two other preserved, parallel furrows probably enabled rainwater drainage. The outer portico had an interesting layout. The pediment, door pilasters, and two columns formed the gate. The Corinthian columns and pilasters had elaborate decorations of winged animals, lions, and bulls. The cult symbols of Demeter, like wheat rosettes and flowers decorated spaces between the columns and the pediment.
The inner portico had a flat coffered ceiling, supported by two monumental, pentelic Caryatids. One is on display in the Archaeological Museum of Eleusis. At the same time, the other one was stolen by the English traveler Edward Clark and transported to Cambridge in 1812, where it still stands today. Both statues depict Maidens who carry the mystic cist on their heads. It’s the cylindrical container with the sacred, cult objects they had in a ritual. They were also decorated with carved reliefs -symbols of the cult of Demeter. More on it below.
The Architecture of the Eleusinian Mysteries: the Caryatid
Caryatid’s face, Eleusis
Who is Caryatid?
Caryatid is a sculpted female figure used as an architectural support, taking the place of a column or pillar to hold up an entablature. The term “caryatid” comes from the Greek word “Karyatis,” which refers to the women of the ancient town of Caryae. The most famous example of caryatids can be found on the south porch of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis in Athens, created during the Classical Greek period around 421-417 BCE.
Caryatids found on the south porch of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis in Athens
The Mythology of Caryatid
The mythology behind these figures is somewhat disputed. One interpretation is that they represent the women of Caryae, a town that sided with the Persians during the Persian Wars. As punishment, the women were forced into slavery and forced to carry heavy burdens. The caryatids, then, would symbolize this punishment, bearing the weight of the building’s entablature.
However, another interpretation suggests that the caryatids represent priestesses of Artemis Caryatis, the goddess associated with the walnut tree. This interpretation is supported by the presence of a sanctuary of Artemis Caryatis in the town of Caryae.
In Roman times, the two colossal Caryatids adorned the Little Propylaia decoration. The Caryatid was about three times the size of a man. She carried a cylindrical box on her head, a “cyst,” decorated with ears of corn, rosettes, and ritual vessels named “kerns.” For the villagers of Elefsina, she was the “saint Demeter who protected their land and gave them a good harvest.”
Views of one Caryatid left in Eleusis
The theft of the Caryatid of Eleusis
Eleusis continued its existence after a formal, forced closure of its grounds by the Byzantine emperors. A Frankish tower that existed until 1953 illustrates the passage of Franks through Eleusis. The Venetians also went through Eleusis as they wanted to take a large statue of Koris but left it in place there. This statue appears in the plans of the British George Wheler, who visited the Sanctuary of Demeter in 1676 to describe the desolated space. In 1801, another British traveler, ED Clarke comes to Eleusis and decides to take the statue of the Maiden with him. ED Clarke loaded one of them on his ship that sank off the coast of England. The statue was recovered and placed in the Public Library in the Fitzwilliam Museum of Cambridge in 1803.
Sphinxes Decorations on Tombs in Eleusis | Veronica Winters Art Blog
How Colorful Clothes Exhibited Fashion, Status, & Symbolism in Ancient Greece
Because of the secrecy of the ceremony, it’s difficult to say what the ancient Greeks wore exactly during the rites. However, it’s reasonable to think that clothing also had some spiritual significance in the Eleusinian Mysteries, as the initiates probably wore ceremonial, colored robes with patterns, jewelry, and wreaths, as we see in this terracotta plaque found in Eleusis. The garments look a lot more decorative and refined than usual Greek outerwear. Leaf tiaras and crowns top the heads of both men and women.
Other statues exhibited in the museum:
The Eleusinian sculptures in the Archeological Museum show classical Greek costumes -himation (off-one shoulder and draped around cloak) and chiton (toga-like dress).
Statue of Antinoos, (on the left) 2nd C. AD. Antinoos was a beautiful youth and probably a lover of the emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD). He drowned in the Nile barely reaching adulthood, and Hadrian deified him, flooding the empire with statues, portraits, and even temples dedicated to the handsome youth.
Statue of Asclepius, (center) 320 BC. The Healer God or the god of health and medicine. It was found north of the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore, where there was presumably a shrine of the god.
Clothing as a symbol of status in ancient Greece:
Attributed to the Nikon Painter, Terracotta lekythos (oil flask), ca. 460? -450 B.C., Terracotta, H. 15 in. (38.1 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Leon Pomerance, 1953 (53.224)
In general, though, ancient Greeks wore four layers or types of clothing depending on their sex and event. The Peplos, Chiton, Himation, and the Chlamys. They didn’t wear trousers or underwear. You can see a well-written summary with illustrations and vases here, at the Art Institute of Chicago, and here, at the Met.
The Charioteer, closeup of a bronze sculpture of a young man, Classical period, 478 BC, 1,82m in height, Delphi.
I think ancient Greek clothing was beautiful, elegant, and functional, considering they probably exercised in short chitons at the gymnasium. Sculptures of men dressed in the chitons remind me of the Doric columns from the temples of ancient Greece. Dress code and fabric colors reflected social and economic status, and this book reconstructs the social meanings attached to the dressed body in ancient Greece: Body, Dress, and Identity in Ancient Greece, by Mireille M. Lee.
Here are some of the most common garments in ancient Greece:
Statue of a goddess, probably Aphrodite, 4th century BCE, Athens. She is dressed in peplos and himation. THE CULT OF APHRODITE AT DAΡΗΝΙ
Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus and Dione, the most beautiful goddess who dwelt on Mount Olympus. She was not only the goddess of Love and Beauty, but also the patron deity of the Demos (Aphrodite Pandemos), and her chthonic character was connected to the death and rebirth of nature and human beings. Her children were the winged god Eros (who often accompanies her), Himeros and Pothos, Phobos and Deimos, Harmonos and Rhodos.
The most important sanctuary of Aphrodite in Attica was at Daphni, located to the right of the Sacred Way leading to Eleusis. In this and similar sanctuaries in Athens (on the north side of the Acropolis), Aphrodite was worshipped as the goddess of fertility and rebirth of nature -capacities that were strengthened by the presence of her young son, Eros. The sanctuary at Daphni existed from the second half of the 5th century BC to the Roman period.
The most important find from the excavation of the goddess’s sanctuary at Daphni is the torso of Aphrodite, which showed her leaning with her elbow on a tree trunk. Statuettes of Aphrodite alone or as a group with Eros were placed in the niches in the rock of the sanctuary. In addition, other votive relief figurines of doves were made for the sanctuary.
For Women:
Peplos: A rectangular piece of cloth, one-size-fits-all, draped over the body, fastened with brooches at the shoulders. It was often worn by married women and was associated with modesty and respectability. The fabric was wool. It was replaced by the chiton later on.
Chiton: A garment similar to a tunic, often worn underneath the peplos. It could be sleeveless or have short sleeves, belted. The fabric was fine linen, but it was often made of silk for women. At first, only men wore it long but eventually, this style became popular among women, while men shortened their chitons. By the 4th century BC, the ‘luxury’ chitons became elaborate with patterns and decorations.
Himation: A large rectangular cloak that could be draped around the body and off one shoulder worn over the chiton. Made of wool, it was often used for warmth or as a symbol of status.
Daochos monument with Agias, Delphi illustrates ancient Greek styles of clothing
For Men:
Chiton: Similar to the women’s chiton, but often shorter and more fitted. It could be worn alone or under a himation.
Himation: A large rectangular cloak, made of wool, similar to the one worn by women. It could be draped diagonally off a shoulder and wrapped around the body. Men wore it over the chiton or nude body.
Chlamys: A shorter, more rectangular cloak reserved for men only. It was often worn by young men, especially soldiers because it helped them in battles. It was typically fastened with a brooch at the shoulder. In late antiquity, the chlamys changed its length, material, and status. Made of silk and precious stones decorations, the chlamys belonged to the dress code of emperors and high-ranking officials.
Attic cup: Oedipus and the Sphinx
Oedipus and the Sphinx, interior of an Attic red-figured kylix (cup or drinking vessel), c. 470 BCE; in the Gregorian Etruscan Museum, the Vatican Museums, Rome.
Fabric dyes & symbolism of color:
As you can see ancient Greeks used several types of fabric, mainly linen, wool, and silk. When we look at the images on the vases and sculptures, we think of white fabric that can represent purity. However, ancient Greeks often dyed their fabric in vibrant hues like purple, red, blue, and yellow that were costly and represented status.
Common dyes were:
Madder Root: This plant produces a vibrant red dye, often associated with passion, vitality, and courage.
Woad: This plant yielded a blue dye, symbolizing wisdom, spirituality, and the divine.
Saffron: A luxurious and expensive yellow dye, often associated with royalty, wealth, and happiness.
Kermes: This insect produced a deep red dye, similar to madder, and was also linked to passion and vitality.
Tyrian Purple: A rare and costly purple-red dye extracted from a type of sea snail, this color was reserved for the elite and symbolized wealth, power, and imperial authority.
Symbolism of Color in Ancient Greece:
White: Often associated with purity, innocence, and mourning.
Black: Symbolized death, mourning, and the underworld.
Red: Connected to passion, vitality, and courage.
Blue: Associated with wisdom, spirituality, and the divine.
Purple: Symbolized royalty, wealth, and power.
Yellow: Linked to happiness, joy, and the sun.
In conclusion:
The Eleusian Mysteries was the most significant pagan ritual of Ancient Greece. Every year, thousands of individuals participated in these secret ceremonies, in honor of Demeter and Persephone, the Greek goddesses of fertility and agriculture. We may never know the exact rituals that involved initiation, processions, and purification ceremonies to honor the cycles of life and death and to experience unity with God. We may never learn the exact formula for a magic drink of ancient Greeks. One thing is clear, what looks like a bunch of broken stones today was an important center of shamanic worship for ancient Greeks to learn about themselves by connecting to a higher power in a once-in-a-lifetime event. By feeling unity with the divine through a shared psychedelic drink, ancient Greeks had a pathway to see beyond reality, be the one with the community, and live a meaningful life.
Please share your thoughts on the mysteries of Demeter and check out my other videos on ancient Greece. nika@veronicasart.com
Before the birth of Jesus, the Ancient Greeks found salvation in their own sacraments. Sacred beverages were routinely consumed as part of the so-called Ancient Mysteries – elaborate rites that led initiates to the brink of death. The best and brightest from Athens and Rome flocked to the spiritual capital of Eleusis, where a holy beer unleashed heavenly visions for two thousand years. Others drank the holy wine of Dionysus to become one with the god. In the 1970s, renegade scholars claimed this beer and wine – the original sacraments of Western civilization – were spiked with mind-altering drugs. In recent years, vindication for the disgraced theory has been quietly mounting in the laboratory. The constantly advancing fields of archaeobotany and archaeochemistry have hinted at the enduring use of hallucinogenic drinks in antiquity. And with a single dose of psilocybin, the psychopharmacologists at Johns Hopkins and NYU are now turning self-proclaimed atheists into instant believers. But the smoking gun remains elusive. If these sacraments survived for thousands of years in our remote prehistory, from the Stone Age to the Ancient Greeks, did they also survive into the age of Jesus? Was the Eucharist of the earliest Christians, in fact, a psychedelic Eucharist? The Immortality Key reconstructs the suppressed history of women consecrating a forbidden, drugged Eucharist that was later banned by the Church Fathers. Women were then targeted as witches during the Inquisition when Europe’s sacred pharmacology largely disappeared.
the road to Eleusis unveiling the secret of the mysteries:
the Eleusinian Mysteries were a series of secret rituals and initiations in honor of the goddesses Demeter and Persephone for almost 2000 years. The book’s first release in 1978 showed the work of three researchers—a mycologist, chemist, and historian—who revealed the sacred potion use during the rites. Infused with a psychoactive entheogen, the drink reframed modern understanding of the rites and religion in general. The authors share insights on experiential religious practices, perspectives on the healing potential of psychedelics, and how—and why—the secrets of the Mysteries were deliberately concealed. This 30th-anniversary edition has a renewed exploration of the chemical findings by Peter Webster turning our knowledge of the past and religious history upside down.
Eco-Expressions: Drop-In Letters and Art-Making Workshops with Michele Lorusso
jascencio
Wed, 04/09/2025 – 11:15
Join artist-in-residence Michele Lorusso for drop-in activities including letters to the world in the future, environmental chats, and hands-on art-making workshops inspired by the exhibition Nature on Notice: Contemporary Art and Ecology.
All ages are welcome to participate. All programs provided with bilingual translation in Spanish.
All education and outreach programs at LACMA are underwritten by the LACMA Education Fund and are supported in part by the Judy and Bernard Briskin Family Foundation, The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, the William Randolph Hearst Endowment Fund for Arts Education, Alfred E. Mann Charities, The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, Gloria Ricci Lothrop, the Flora L. Thornton Foundation, U.S. Bank, and The Yabuki Family Foundation.
We experienced another successful community art table! This time, I set out leaves with fabric scraps, tempera paint, glue, and colored construction paper. I had a prompt at the table, but children could use the materials however they chose. The results were pure magic. I love every single piece!
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Here’s what you’ll need for Leaf & Fabric Collages:
~ Drop cloth or butcher paper to cover your table
~ Colored construction paper (I used sulphite paper in almond, pink, and gold)
~ Tempera paint (I mixed a muted yellow, deep orange, and bright pink)
~ Brushes
~ Fabric scraps (cut up from donated fabric and old clothing)
~ Leaves (collected the morning of so they were fresh)
~ Glue
Setting up the table:
I used a round table and made sure there were about 3 separate stations so children didn’t have to reach too far to get what they needed.
1. Start by covering your table. I like using a dropcloth, it can absorb the paint a little if there are spills, and it can be washed and reused, so it saves on paper.
2. Mix some warm colors. I added white and a dash of purple to the yellow to make it a little more muted and opaque. I mixed the orange with a dash of blue and a little white so make it more of a burnt orange. You can add a little red, too. And I added white to the neon pink. Add a brush or two to each jar.
3. Set out a box of leaves and some trays of fabric scraps. And add some glue bottles, making sure that they all work. I used light, warm-colored construction paper instead of white so that even the most minimalist explorations would feel complete.
Managing the process:
1. The thing I love most about setting up an essentially self-serve art experience is watching how children will use the materials and in what sequence. When I used to have art classes in my house, I would have staggered this type of project. Meaning, I would have started with collage and then brought out the paint, or maybe vice-versa. This is because art class was an hour and I wanted to extend the experience for as long as possible. But I can admit that spacing the use of materials controls the experience to a certain degree, since children don’t have full autonomy over when to use the materials. With a community table where children and families come and go, I can’t space out the usage of the materials even if I wanted to, it would be too clumsy and take up so much of my time. I have up to 75 people in the room at one time with three different tables, so I need to set up a painting experience with the understanding that all the materials are out at once and children will have autonomy over their entire experience (that is, if a parent doesn’t control it). This first used to make me anxious, but now I love and embrace the outcomes and I don’t think I’ll ever go back!
2. The only thing I have to manage is making sure to restock the fabric scraps, add more paint (but I didn’t actually have to do that because even after 2 hours, the paint never ran out), and clean up the space quickly to add some fresh paper. The rest is just left to fate!
3. I absolutely LOVE watching different styles emerge. This child had a very minimalist aesthetic. She started with this simple yet dazzling layout, adding yellow all the way around her painted leaf.
Once all the yellow was added, she painted back over her leaf so it was just a monochromatic piece. Next time I cam pack she had added another color at the top, and made hair and a border from the fabric. It was fascinating to watch her iterate.
We had other minimalists as well. This one really caught my eye.
And these were two of my very favorite pieces of the whole day. The control and purpose behind these mixed-media paintings are unreal! Frame worthy.
This child was very young, maybe between 2 and 3 years old. Her parents were nearby but let her work mostly by herself, adding layers and layers of color and collage. I love it so much.
This artist seemed to have a particular affinity for the textural collage pieces and didn’t want to add any paint. The colors and composition are so on point.
4. Make sure you have a drying area nearby. We just used the floor. I would also suggest having a few pieces of flat, scrap cardboard available for the very wet paintings that needed to get home without too much mess.
5. What I learned from watching the children hard at work at this painting table was that they use core design elements so effortlessly and instinctively, such as color, texture, space, form, mark-making, and composition. It’s actually so inspiring!
Let me know if you try this one, and tag me on Instagram @artbarblog if you do!
xo Bar
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Did you like this post? Here are other collage and leaf ideas:
“I want to explode the idea of beautiful ikebana,” says Kosen Ohtsubo, one of the foremost conceptual artists working in the Japanese tradition.
Since the 1970s, Ohtsubo has been unsettling the ancient art of flower arranging. Incorporating atypical botanicals like cabbage leaves or weaving in unconventional materials like bathtubs and scrap metal, the artist approaches making with the mindset of a jazz musician, a genre he frequently listens to while working. Improvisation and experimentation are at the core, along with an unquenchable desire for the unexpected.
Detail of Kosen Ohtsubo, “Linga München” (2025), 300 Basket willow branches, candle, metal frame, plastic and metal ties, scrap metal, soil, various flowers and leaves
An exhibition at Kunstverein München in Munich pairs Ohtsubo with Christian Kōun Alborz Oldham who, after discovering the ikebana icon’s work in a book in 2013, became his student. Titled Flower Planet—which references a sign that hangs outside Ohtsubo’s Tokorozawa home and studio—the show presents various sculptures and installations that invite viewers to consider fragility, decay, and the elusive qualities of beauty and control.
Given the ephemeral nature of the materials, photography plays an important role in most ikebana practices as it preserves an arrangement long after it has wilted. This exhibition, therefore, pairs images of earlier works with new commissions, including Ohtsubo’s standout orb titled “Linga München.” Nested in a bed of soil and leaves, the large-scale sculpture wraps willow with metal structures and positions a small candle within its center.
Similarly immersive is “Willow Rain,” which suspends thin branches from the ceiling. Subverting the way we typically encounter fields of growth, the work is one of many in the exhibition that seeds questions about our relationship to the natural world and the limits of human control.
Flower Planet is on view through April 21. Explore Ohstubo’s vast archive on Instagram.
Detail of Kosen Ohtsubo, “Linga München” (2025), 300 Basket willow branches, candle, metal frame, plastic and metal ties, scrap metal, soil, various flowers and leavesKosen Ohtsubo, “Willow Rain” (2025), 800 basket willow branches, metal frameChristian Kōun Alborz Oldham, “Corruption”Christian Kōun Alborz Oldham, “Penny Waking up from a Dream” (2025), carrot, Chinese long bean, reflecting sphere, Japanese woven bamboo basketDetail of Christian Kōun Alborz Oldham, “Penny Waking up from a Dream” (2025), carrot, Chinese long bean, reflecting sphere, Japanese woven bamboo basketDetail of Kosen Ohtsubo, “Linga München” (2025), 300 Basket willow branches, candle, metal frame, plastic and metal ties, scrap metal, soil, various flowers and leavesKosen Ohtsubo, “怪芋III / Strange Callas III” (2025), Calla lily, willow, custom-designed iron box
Textile art is experiencing a remarkable resurgence, celebrated for its ability to infuse spaces with texture, warmth, and personality. In this exclusive feature, contemporary artists Alla Grande and Eni Pullumbi share their contrasting approaches and creative processes, offering a glimpse into the boundless potential of textiles in contemporary art and interior design.
By Cecile Martet | 12 Dec 2024
At the forefront of this movement are Alla Grande, renowned for her intricate, highly textural pieces, and Eni Pullumbi, who pushes boundaries with bold explorations of volume, colour, and unconventional materials.
Alla Grande: a new way of perceiving luxury
Alla Grande, a German artist and designer trained in architecture, sees her textile works as inner journeys translated into abstract compositions. Each piece is a superimposition of sensations and reflections. ‘My art is a journey through thoughts and emotions – each piece is an expression of the limitless nature of human creativity,’ she says.
Alla Grande,The Checkmate (2024, acrylic paint, cotton and glue on canvas, 80 x 80 cm)
Her training in architecture has had a direct influence on her work. The strong geometric shapes and play of light and shadow she favours give her work a sculptural dimension. They fit perfectly into a variety of settings, from luxury hotels to workspaces and private residences. For the Krefeld-based artist, textile art doesn’t just dress up a space; it invites an emotional and sensory experience.
Alla Grande, The Labyrinth 1 (2023, fabric sculpture, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm) | SOLD
‘The right lighting can accentuate texture and colour, making the artwork seem alive,’ she explains. Soft, directional lighting reveals the richness of folds and shadows, while carefully chosen framing can emphasise the elegance of a piece while protecting it.
Alla Grande also encourages people to consider the scale and placement of their works so that they find their rightful place in an interior. “Geometric or monochrome textile works create a modern, timeless aesthetic without overwhelming the space,” she says. This ability to create bespoke works in harmony with the surrounding architecture is an integral part of her approach.
Alla Grande,The Eye of the Ocean (2024, acrylic and glue on MDF board, 68 x 68 cm)
For Alla Grande, textile art is a medium that transcends traditional boundaries: “My works allow the viewer to engage in personal explorations and establish a connection with art.” This intimate relationship between work and space offers a new way of perceiving luxury, where aesthetics combine with a deeply immersive experience.
Eni Pullumbi: art that comes alive
Albanian artist Eni Pullumbi reinvents textile art through “wall sculptures” using unexpected materials. His practice, fuelled by an insatiable curiosity, leads him to experiment with elements such as expanded polyurethane, felt, and abrasive sheets. Each work is born of a meticulous observation of everyday life, transforming banal objects into captivating artistic pieces.
In Eni Pullumbi’s studio
“It all began with a banal moment: while washing up, a sponge caught my eye. Its duality– soft on one side, rough on the other–fascinated me, leading me to imagine how it could be transformed into art”, he recounts. From this intuition was born the SpongePop collection, a playful and colourful series that explores geometric shapes and chromatic contrasts.
Eni Pullumbi, Fourteen Curious Eyes (2024, woven mural, felt and mixed media on MDF, 83,5 x 83,5 x 7,8 cm)
Eni Pullumbi’s aesthetic evolves with each collection. SpongePop is suited to eccentric, modern spaces, where bright colours blend with pop-style interiors. Curious Eyes, on the other hand, with its pastel tones and delicate volumes, fits into warmer, more intimate environments. “Walls with natural imperfections, for example, add an authenticity that enhances the softness of this collection,” he explains.
Eni Pullumbi, Bonnie and Clyde (2023, polyurethane, abrasive sheet and acrylic artwork, 91 x 61 x 8 cm)
The interaction of his works with their environment is at the heart of his approach. “When choosing a location for one of my creations, I invite you to consider it as a living thing, capable of interacting with its environment and transforming its atmosphere,” explains the Milan-based artist. Under natural light, the materials reveal shifting shadows that enrich their expressiveness. That said, the artist also enjoys experimenting with artificial lighting to intensify volumes and textures.
Textiles and tapestries: immersive, tactile experiences
Textile art is capturing attention not just for its aesthetic appeal but for its ability to evoke sensory and emotional connections in an increasingly digital world. Alla Grande and Eni Pullumbi illustrate this beautifully—offering pieces that go beyond decoration to create immersive, tactile experiences. Their work reminds us that art can be both personal and transformative, grounding us in the materiality of the spaces we inhabit.
Discover their creations and more in our textiles and tapestries art collection—where innovation meets tradition, and every piece invites you to rethink the relationship between art and living.
Our family went on a trip of a lifetime to Tuscany, Italy last summer and finally, I am sitting down to write and share all about it. We had been planning this trip for what feels like a decade. Every year we would do all the work creating the itinerary, but then be too overwhelmed with the details, cost, logistics, dogs, work, summer camps. We had spreadsheets and links and secret Pinterest boards, but would instead become paralyzed and just end up driving to Maine or Martha’s Vineyard or Rhode Island (all amazing places) or up to Montreal in search of a little slice of Europe without the air travel. (If you follow me on Instagram, I have lots of story highlights with our family travels along the East Coast — there are some really beautiful spots.) We had everything planned for summer 2020, but then the world stopped (we did perfect the staycation during those pandemic summers). Somehow, some way, with help from friends who cheered and counseled and convinced, we finally hit “buy tickets” with an emotional wave of excitement and panic. We’re going to Italy!!
Here’s what STEP 1 of our Italy planning entailed: Watch all of Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy; watch White Lotus (season 2). STEP 2: Wardrobe and art supplies. Then alas, STEP 3 (the hard part): Itinerary. I say the hard part because, on the one hand, it’s fun to do the research (especially following all the Tuscany IG accounts), but on the other hand, planning and logistics are not something I’m naturally good at or like very much. I prefer being a follower on vacations; just tell me what’s happening and where to go, and I’m there. But this trip forced me to be a travel leader, which is way out of my comfort zone. I’m really a homebody at heart. I want to see and experience new places, but I want to teleport there. I hate flying, and I get motion sickness in any moving vehicle.
But now that this whole trip is done, I can say that I did all the hard things, and it went really well. And even though I still would prefer to be a follower on trips, I was actually okay at being a leader. Not perfect (like the first-day excursion to Arezzo during the 3 hours everything is closed), but pretty okay!
So, without further ado, I am sharing my favorite photos and inspiring spots, the t-shirts I made, my Tuscany color palettes (still to come and the reason this post has taken 6 months), and some links to the places and things we loved most.
Villa Barbazzano
The first 9 days of our trip were spent at this gorgeous villa (which is available to rent!). It’s located about 45 minutes south of Florence in a small town called Val di Chiani. It was the five of us, plus each of my kids brought a friend, for a total of eight people. The villa has nine bedrooms and sleeps 20 (perfect for family reunions)! If you click on the link, you can see how beautiful the villa is from all of the photos. But it so far exceeded even our wildest dreams. It is heaven on earth. The grounds are absolutely stunning, kept so beautiful by one man, Corrado, and his dog Terri; the pool and pool house are gorgeous and in perfect shape, plus so comfortable and tasteful; the bedrooms are cozy and comfortable and feel a bit like being in a castle with delightful tile and incredible architecture; and the sunsets are magnificent. We would go back in a heartbeat.
In fact, the villa is so beautiful and comfortable that we decided to have more rest days at home than originally planned. We had rented two cars to fit everyone, and it did get to be a bit much to do so much driving every day, so we were happy to just plan a day off. The closest big town is Arezzo, about 20 minutes away, and we went there three times for short excursions and meals. We actually loved Arezzo so much, scroll down for more on that.
Florence
On the day we planned our Florence tour, there were intermittent thunderstorms. I took the photo above right before the skies opened up. I love the moody sky and the Ponte di Vecchio in the distance. We bought ponchos and umbrellas on the fly, which gave me an opportunity to quickly snap photos of the contrast between the gray, neutral environment and the rainbow gear.
We hired a tour guide which I messed up by going to the wrong location. It was supposed to be a 4-hour tour but ended up being 3 hours which was honestly plenty, and maybe even a tad long, for teenagers. I loved it, but I think in the future, I would have booked a shorter tour, like 2 hours tops. However, Chiara from Florence Custom Tours was phenomenal! She was so friendly, patient, charismatic, warm, and knowledgable, and found us the most delicious pizza restaurant, Ciro & Sons, right near the train station so we could easily catch the train back home. We unfortunately missed getting inside the Duomo by minutes, which was a bummer. But coming upon that giant structure in the middle of the city is quite magical. We also saw the Statue of David by Michaelangelo, which was breathtaking. All in all, a good and exhausting day. We definitely needed a rest day after that!
Montepulciano
This was one of my favorite little towns to visit. It was such a beautiful day, and the drive was not too long (less than an hour) and also gorgeous with so many perfect Tuscany landscape moments. From the lush, windy hills to the expansive vineyards, there was beauty at every turn. The village is very hilly, as all villages in Tuscany are, with skinny, winding roads and paths that were just so beautiful with the weathered stone and pops of colored shutters and doors.
We first walked up the hills to the Piazza Grande and found a great little outdoor pizza and gelato restaurant. Then we walked up to the top of the Montepulciano Tower. This was probably a highlight of the whole trip! We climbed lots of towers during the 2 weeks we were in Italy, and the view from the top of this tower was the most stunning of all. So much so that I made a painting of the quilt-like landscape!
We took a selfie of all of us at the top (oh, and we added my sister-in-law, so we were now nine!), and the joy on our faces is so evident and real. Two in the group were afraid of heights, but it wasn’t too scary climbing up. I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone whose mobility is compromised as the steps get taller and the space narrower towards the top. Highly recommend this captivating little town for shopping, too. We found our favorite leather bag store, and hat store, too.
Il Borro
Borro is a town only about 20 minutes from the villa, and Il Borro is the luxury resort that was built there. It might actually be the whole town, I’m not sure. It was so quaint and gorgeous, and as we were talking about what a perfect spot it would be for a wedding, a bride appeared on cue! There was a curious but strange Pinocchio museum, the cutest dachshund puppy named Otto, and a delicious (but expensive) meal at the resort. A perfect end to our rest-day at home.
Riecine
This was our first vineyard tour! Riecine (pronounced ree-AY-cheh-nay) was about an hour away from our villa. The building where they produced the wine was a new-ish, modern structure that had the coolest murals painted by a local artist, Marco Zedone. We tasted all of their red wines, and their new rose wine that was one of the best we’ve ever had. Not too sweet. Did you know that rosé wine is made from red grapes that just don’t sit for very long, so they are a very light red? We love learning new things.
Piancornello
A few days later, we visited another red wine vineyard. Piancornello (pronounced Pee-awn-kor-NELL-o) is all organic (they don’t use any chemicals) and does not do tours, it’s just a family home and we were invited through a friend. On the downside, it was a 2-hour ride on a bus (blech, some of us got car sick because the roads are so windy), but on the upside, we got a home-cooked meal and a tour of 50-year-old grape vines! Oh, and a room full of kittens. Yup, it was a lot for the senses – something for everyone. Ava loved the kittens, Nate discovered his pici cacio e pepe obsession, and everyone adored the grandma and grandpa who cooked us one of the best meals we had the whole trip. Did you know that young grapes are all green at first, and then turn color around late August? Both of the two vineyards we visited said that they pick the grapes sometime in early October, and the decision happens quickly. The pickers have to wait on hand and be called basically at a moment’s notice. Seeing how much work goes into just one bottle of wine was very eye-opening. It’s an art, and a labor of love.
Arezzo
We loved this little town/city close to home! We never made it to Siena, but have been told that Arezzo is very similar (and some like it even better because there is more to do). We went to Arezzo three different times. We saw the beautiful frescoes by Giorgio Vasari, explored the famous shopping street, Corso Italia, and had several meals on the medieval Piazza Grande with all their coat of arms insignias hanging everywhere. Fun fact, did you know that parts of the movie Life is Beautiful were filmed here? Also, it was just about the only time we saw a salad on a menu. Note to readers: Italians don’t really do salads. We are big salad eaters and definitely missed our fresh greens.
San Gimignano
We finally said goodbye to the villa and to our houseguests on day nine and packed our car to travel west towards the Mediterranean. On our way, we stopped in San Gimignano, the town of towers. This walled city was so cool, but it was really crowded with busloads of tourists. We actually were able to find off-the-path roads, though, and we even found a restaurant with a free table that was jazz-themed. Our server was an artist whose paintings were hanging in between the black-and-white photographs. There is also this really cool miniature model of the city that was displayed in a hidden shop. We learned that the towers were not used for any purpose in battle, it was just a contest of riches – who could build the tallest tower! It was actually a perfect last place to visit before traveling to the coast. The contrast from old, monochromatic stone structures to colorful, limestone houses in Lucca!
Lucca
Ahh, Lucca. We loved this walled city so very much. Driving west towards the Mediterranean, we noticed the topography changing from hilly to more flat. It was about a 2 hour drive from San Gimignano, and we only had one car at this point which was packed with way too much luggage, so everyone was cranky. We passed some mountains that looked like big, white chunks were taken out of them. We learned later that Lucca is near Carrara, famous for their white marble, so we passed some of their quarries and caves! I wish we had known beforehand and had stopped to take a tour, but it was so cool nonetheless.
Arriving in Lucca is very magical. There is this giant wall around the city, so big that it is also a park where residents and vacationers can go for a run, ride their bikes, walk their dogs, and look down at the city’s streets and colorful buildings. You drive through a big gate to enter, and then as a tourist, you have to park your car in one of the parking garages around the exterior. We rolled our luggage to our AirBnb apartment, which was not far, and were pleasantly surprised that it had air conditioning! It was in a perfect location, and we immediately went out to walk around and explore.
The streets are all cobblestone with very few cars. You can walk around the whole city in less than an hour, and every turn you make onto a new street brings a new color or texture or cute shop. We climbed the Torre Guinigi which has trees at the top and another impressive view of the terra cotta roofs and the wall in the distance. We visited the most amazing oval Piazza dell’Anfiteatro many times as it was filled with restaurants and shops and at night it looks and feels like you’re on a movie set with the lights and colors and sounds. We found our favorite pizza of the whole trip (and maybe ever) at Dante e Gentucca. If you ever go, get a slice and sit on the church steps across from the shop. Did you know Puccini was born in Lucca? They have a Puccini concert every night in the church across from the pizzeria! We also found our favorite vintage shop called Mi Casa with a mirror I wanted so badly, but it was too expensive to ship. There is the Lucca Summer Music Festival which happened to feature Bob Dylan when we were there. I see a destination concert in our future.
Tellaro
On our third day in Lucca, we took a 40-minute drive to the coast to a town called Tellaro. Our original plan was to drive to Cinque Terre and walk the five towns. But it was 94 degrees Fahrenheit by now, and it was a Saturday, so the property manager of our apartment, Manuel who was incredibly helpful, said that he did not recommend in any way to go to Cinque Terre. He said you will hate it. If it was me, I would have gone anyway. I mean, when would I ever be this near to a place I have dreamed about visiting for a decade (and might have planned the trip around)? But it was five of us, and the other four considered it a warning and I didn’t have the energy to convince them otherwise. Manuel suggested instead that we drive to a non-touristy, locals-only beach town that he promised would be just like any of the towns in Cinque Terre but without the crowds. That is how we ended up in Tellaro.
It turned out to be one of our best and most memorable experiences. And Manuel was right, not a tourist in sight, other than us. Parking was a bit of an issue, but once we found a spot, we walked down the one street all the way to the bottom and found the ocean. There was a rock quarry with a shallow walk-in that was good for families with little kids, and then we walked a little further along the path and found big rocks where people laid out towels and carefully (the rocks were slippy) crept into the water. Turns out this spot was called Gro. There was a gorgeous metal sign, but I forgot to take a photo. Grace and Nate climbed up even bigger rocks and jumped off. The Mediterranean was absolutely gorgeous, from the color to the temperature to the vibe. Just heavenly. Do I wish we had seen Cinque Terre? Yes. But I don’t regret our choice, and now I will just have to go back!
T-shirt Printing
I hand-cut a rubber stamp and printed t-shirts for everyone on the trip (see my video here on Instagram). It was actually a fairly unsuccessful printing project. I should have used linoleum, but instead used rubber because I had it on my shelf, but it was too soft and didn’t hold the ink well. Someday I will try it again and write a whole post about it. But for now, here are some photos of the process and us wearing them!
That’s a wrap on our amazing Italy trip! I will be back to add in my color palette collages which I am still working on. Let me know if this post inspired you to travel to any of these places!
xo, Bar
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Did you like this post? Here are some more places we have traveled as a family:
Eco-Expressions: Drop-In Letters and Art-Making Workshops with Michele Lorusso
jascencio
Wed, 04/09/2025 – 11:15
Join artist-in-residence Michele Lorusso for drop-in activities including letters to the world in the future, environmental chats, and hands-on art-making workshops inspired by the exhibition Nature on Notice: Contemporary Art and Ecology.
All ages are welcome to participate. All programs provided with bilingual translation in Spanish.
All education and outreach programs at LACMA are underwritten by the LACMA Education Fund and are supported in part by the Judy and Bernard Briskin Family Foundation, The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, the William Randolph Hearst Endowment Fund for Arts Education, Alfred E. Mann Charities, The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, Gloria Ricci Lothrop, the Flora L. Thornton Foundation, U.S. Bank, and The Yabuki Family Foundation.
The contemporary art world is a dynamic space where innovation, creativity, and competition meet. With the rise of digital platforms, accessibility, competition, and global art fairs, today’s artists face an increasingly complex landscape. Navigating this world can be challenging if the artist is not social or outgoing or lacks important connections in the art world. Art agents have emerged as allies for these artists, providing services that let painters succeed faster in the highly competitive art market.
Javier Bellomo, Coria face, Art Miami 2017
What is an art agent’s role in contemporary art?
An art agent is a professional who represents artists in the art world, handling key aspects of their career, such as promotion, sales, negotiations, and career strategy. While art agents share some similarities with managers, they typically focus more on the artist’s presence and success in the contemporary art market. Unlike galleries, which may also represent artists but focus on sales and exhibitions within their spaces, art agents work across multiple platforms and manage various stakeholders, from collectors and curators to exhibition spaces and online marketplaces.
Art agent benefits for painters include bridging the gap between the artist and the external art world. They are adept at understanding the unique needs of individual artists and aligning these with opportunities in the broader art scene. Depending on the specific goals of the artist, the art agent can help artists with negotiation skills for better deals, networking opportunities for artists, exhibition opportunities for painters, career advice, and so on. With their guidance, artists can focus on their studio work while art agents build the business side of things, being deeply embedded in the art community.
Art agent services for contemporary artists
One of the most significant ways art agents empower contemporary painters is through marketing, networking, and promotion. In an era where visibility is crucial to success, a good art agent creates exposure for the artist in upscale venues and private circles. They often direct marketing strategies and campaigns for artists, ensuring that the right people see the artist’s work— top critics, curators, and collectors. Through art agents, painters can access media outlets, get featured in art publications, and even be invited to prestigious art fairs or gallery openings.
Art agents also create and manage the artist’s social media presence, crafting the story around the artist’s brand. By positioning the artist in the right circles and enhancing their public image, agents ensure that painters are seen and recognized as significant contributors to contemporary art. Art agent networking opportunities for artists are crucial for the connection to the right audience because that’s how new artist’s work is noticed and valued.
Peter Anton, Art Miami 2017
Art agent’s role in negotiation and representation
Art agents are experts at negotiation, particularly in dealings with galleries, collectors, and other stakeholders in the art world. Their ability to handle sales and commissions on behalf of artists allows painters to focus on their creativity. Art agent financial management for artists includes price negotiations and fair compensation for their work. They also help determine commission splits or arrange exhibition contracts.
Art agent collector connections for artists are skilled negotiations with large-scale gallery exhibitions or top art collectors. Art agents for painters manage these relationships, protecting the artist’s interests and ensuring that they’re not undervalued. In addition to securing sales, art agents provide financial management for artists that include brokering deals for long-term representation, licensing opportunities, or museum acquisitions, thus ensuring the artist’s career remains financially viable.
Art agent’s role in career management
Art agents make a substantial impact in effective career management and artist’s long-term success. Art agents work closely with contemporary painters to develop a strategic vision for their career, advising on the type of work to create, where to exhibit, and what artistic directions to pursue. Art agents maintain the artist’s reputation across multiple platforms, helping them avoid common pitfalls that can derail an art career.
Art agent career advice for painters includes long-term planning, helping artists build a lasting legacy. Whether through curating exhibitions that span several years or ensuring that the artist’s work remains relevant in shifting art trends, agents are often integral in guiding the artist toward sustainable growth. Their skills in navigating the art market help artists make decisions for critical and financial success.
Art agent benefits for painters in building and expanding networks
Networking is a key factor in an artist’s career, and well-connected art agents can excel at facilitating valuable connections. Through their established relationships with curators, art critics, collectors, and galleries, agents can open doors to opportunities that may otherwise be out of reach for contemporary painters. Art agents are the art world’s gatekeepers, connecting artists to influential figures who can help propel their careers.
Additionally, agents leverage their connections to ensure their clients are introduced to new opportunities for collaboration or exhibition. Whether it’s an invitation to a prestigious international art fair, a private showing at a gallery, or a chance to collaborate with other artists or brands, art agents provide their clients with a network of powerful contacts. By expanding these networks, art agents not only help artists gain recognition but also ensure the right eyes see their work.
Art agent financial and legal advice for artists
Artists often fall behind on pricing and negotiations. There’s not much interest or knowledge about financial management for artists. Art agents provide crucial support in pricing artwork appropriately, ensuring that the artist’s work is valued correctly based on market demand, the artist’s reputation, and the uniqueness of their creations.
In addition to pricing, art agent gives legal advice to artists, including contracts, intellectual property rights, and copyright issues. They ensure that the artist’s interests are protected, helping them navigate the complexities of licensing and sales agreements. Art agents often negotiate exhibition terms, give proper attribution of the artist’s work, and provide legal protection for artists.
Art agent’s fee for artists
More established and successful agents may charge higher fees than emerging art agents. As an artist, you must be aware of the provided networking and marketing opportunities, time frames and results that would determine your willingness to pay for this service or not. The scope of services the art agent offers can also influence the fee structure.
Common Fee Structures:
Hybrid model: This combines elements of both commission-based and retainer fee models. The agent may charge a retainer fee for ongoing services and a commission on any sales made.
Commission-based: This is the most common fee structure, where the agent receives a percentage of the sale price of the artwork. The percentage can range from 10% to 50%, with an average of around 25%.
Retainer fee: This is a fixed monthly or annual fee that the artist pays to the agent for their services, regardless of whether any sales are made.
Artists must be aware of many other additional costs that could include shipping, handling, and insurance costs that require negotiations with art agents before purchasing their services.
Art agent future trends in the art market
As the art world continues to evolve, so too does the role of the art agent. The rise of digital platforms and social media has significantly shifted the way art is marketed and sold, and art agents are adapting to this new environment by incorporating online platforms into their strategies. Social media, virtual exhibitions, and online galleries offer new opportunities for contemporary painters to showcase their work, and art agents are at the forefront of these developments.
Additionally, the global nature of the art market means that art agents are increasingly acting as global representatives, helping artists expand their reach beyond their local markets to international audiences. This evolution opens up exciting possibilities for the future, where art agents could have even more influence in shaping the global art scene.
Famous art agents and their artists in art history:
In the past, art agents combined their interests and served as art collectors, art gallerists, and even socialites in elite art circles. These are a few famous art agents in art history.
Chicago art institute, Georgia O’Keeffe, the white skull
Paul Durand-Ruel: Represented major Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists, including Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, and Cézanne.
Ambroise Vollard: Represented Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, and other major artists of the early 20th century.
Alfred Stieglitz: Promoted American modernism and represented artists like his wife-Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and Arthur Dove.
Peggy Guggenheim: Supported and collected Surrealist and Abstract Expressionist art, representing artists like Jackson Pollock and Marcel Duchamp.
Leo Castelli: Represented major Pop Art and Minimalist artists, including Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg.
Mary Boone: Represented major contemporary artists like Cindy Sherman, Eric Fischl, and Ross Bleckner.
By handling marketing, negotiation, career management, networking, and financial support, art agents provide artists with the tools they need to succeed in a highly competitive and complex art world. As the art market evolves, so too does the importance of art agents for painters, who remain essential to navigating this evolving art landscape and achieving long-term success. Through their expertise and connections, art agents empower artists to focus on what they do best—creating impactful, inspiring works of art.
You may recognise textile artist Meghan Spielman from our collaboration with Soho Home, where her vibrant tapestries have adorned the walls of their studios, captivating collectors worldwide. Drawing inspiration from heirloom textile traditions, Spielman weaves subtle tributes to the legacy of female craftsmanship.
Her work echoes the rich history of American quilt and coverlet patterns, transforming them into a visual language that tells stories of time, place, and the hands that created them. With each piece, she rejuvenates this enduring art form, blending tradition with her own dynamic perspective.
Argentine artist Lobo Velar de Irigoyen describes his practice as “a playful and abstract attempt to explore the intimacy of everyday life [to] pose and question communication problems and conflicts of interpretation.” His work seamlessly oscillates between collage, photography, and painting, creating a harmonious yet enigmatic fusion that demands attention. Each piece invites exploration and challenges the viewer, sparking the imagination to craft its own narrative. The story behind his works may remain elusive, but this ambiguity only deepens their allure, ensuring a mesmerising experience with every encounter.
Simon Tatum, an interdisciplinary artist from the Cayman Islands now based in Nashville, Tennessee, creates thought-provoking works that explore identity and perception. Drawing inspiration from W.E.B. Du Bois’s concept of double consciousness, Tatum transforms printed imagery—such as advertisements and documentary photographs—and finds objects into a distinctive visual language.
His art reflects his deep engagement with colonial histories, the complexities of tourism, and his personal journey as a mixed-race Caribbean man navigating societal expectations. Through his deconstruction and reconstruction of these elements, Tatum invites viewers to reconsider the narratives that shape cultural identity.
Kenyan artist Nelson Ijakaa views art as more than a form of expression—it is a catalyst for societal transformation. Refusing to be confined by a single medium, his dynamic practice encompasses painting, photography, video montage, installation, and even augmented reality. Now working from a residency in Hamburg, Ijakaa remains steadfast in his mission to challenge power structures and amplify African voices through his thought-provoking creations.
Brazilian artist Aline Gaiad creates playful and personal domestic scenes, drawing inspiration from everyday life. Her home and studio meld into a seamless creative haven, reflecting her artistic ethos. Influenced by the warmth and sophistication of her childhood home—where she was immersed in a family of avid collectors and artists—her work evokes a sense of nostalgia and charm. Delicate curtains, eclectic wallpapers, and whimsical figures populate Gaiad’s quirky, dollhouse-like abodes, transforming ordinary spaces into richly imaginative, smile-inducing worlds.
Aline Gaiad in front of a selection of her interior paintings
London-based Georgie McEwan works with painting and spatial design. Drawing influence from her architectural background, McEwan’s work entangles the familiar in poetic explorations that warp and play with the boundaries between architecture and art. Joyful abstractions of space, colour and pattern present an alternative way of looking at the world, where distorted dimensions and floating fragments transport us into unexpected landscapes of the imagination.
Thanks to his unique background and diverse influences, Alexander Grawoig transforms the mundane into the extraordinary, reflecting a deep engagement with both material and metaphysical themes. Forgoing formal education to support his family’s graphic design business, he cultivated a deep appreciation for genres like jazz, blues, and electronic music, alongside influences from Dada, Fluxus, and Abstract Expressionism. Since 2008, Grawoig has performed globally under aliases like D/P/I and Deep Magic, collaborating with luminaries such as Laraaji and Orphy Robinson and appearing at venues like MoMA PS1 and Mutek.
Left: Alexander Grawoig framing artworks | Right: Ad Hocc (5) by Alexander Grawoig (Acrylic, oil pastels, graphite, linen, cotton, staples and cardboard on wood panel, 2024, 100 x 70 cm)
French sculptor Anne Mourat reimagines the classical figurative form through her bronze casts and clay models, introducing what she describes as “fantasies” in disproportion. By emphasising larger, unconventional body shapes rarely seen in traditional sculpture, Mourat celebrates humanity in all its power and fragility.
Her ongoing series, Women/Objects, invites models to pose with an object of their choosing, allowing them to “refocus on the essential, detached from any external gaze.” Through the grandeur of scale and commanding stances, Mourat reveals a striking vitality in each figure, tirelessly elevating their presence sculpture after sculpture.
Lolote (bronze casting based on an original modelled in clay, 2006, 22.5 x 25 x 21 cm) Edition of 6 | La Campée (bronze casting based on an original modelled in clay, 2006, 61 x 46 x 33 cm) Edition of 6
Contemporary photographer Casey Moore draws inspiration from landscapes as diverse as the wilds of New Zealand, the Austrian Alps, and the rolling hills of the UK. His meticulously composed photographs delve into nature’s epic scale with surreal precision, inviting viewers into a world where every detail pulses with life. Moore aspires to balance introspection and vibrancy, drawing viewers attention to the quieter moments often overlooked in day to day life.
Photographer Casey Moore holding up one of his hand-printed photographs
With a practice spanning over six decades, Pen Dalton navigates the shifting dynamics between painting and printing, image and text. Her work began deeply rooted in her childhood experiences with her father, who worked in the newspaper printing industry and introduced her to the expressive potential of text, print, and colour. These early influences shaped her exploration of oxymorons and binary perceptions: fathers and daughters, black and white, image and substrate, digital and analogue, mind and body.
Left: Bolus by Pen Dalton (acrylic paint and mediums on home mounted beech panel, 2019, 39 x 28 cm) | Right: Pen Dalton
Her work also interrogates formal oppositions—transparent and opaque, gloss and matte, impasto and smooth. “I am interested in the social analogies and metaphors that can be inferred from these relationships and in what lies in the vast territory between,” she explains. In recent years, Dalton’s practice has pivoted to become one of reconciliation, finding harmony within these binaries by merging contrasting marks on the canvas into a cohesive whole.
For more inspiration, take a look at our What Collectors Have Their Eye On collection, updated monthly with wish-listed and saved works by Rise Art collectors.
Captivated by the idea of “unexpressed feelings and things left unsaid,” artist Xenia Gray creates mixed media work, primarily using oil, acrylic, and charcoal. Born and raised in post-Soviet Siberia, her artistic sensibilities were shaped by the industrial landscapes of her hometown. She pursued formal training in Saint Petersburg, earning an MA in advertisement design from Saint Petersburg State University of Technology and Design. In 2010, she relocated to the United States. Have a look at a selection of her work below.
