Elijah Burgher
A Queer Arcana: Art, Magic, and Spirit brings together an intergenerational group of artists who explore how magic, spirituality, and esoteric knowledge have shaped queer art and culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Drawing on the meaning of arcana—hidden and mystical knowledge—the exhibition considers how queer artists have turned to obscure spiritual practices as sources of connection and transformation. These artists engage magic as a way to envision worlds beyond repressive systems, reclaim sexuality as a sacred power, and build community.
The works on view reflect a wide range of spiritual traditions and practices, including Western occultism, witchcraft and goddess worship, Christian mysticism, New Age beliefs influenced by Eastern philosophies, and shamanic traditions rooted in Indigenous knowledge. Many artists explore and combine diverse traditions, constructing through their work idiosyncratic and intricate worlds.
As articulated by the queer Chicana poet and theorist Gloria Anzaldúa, “spirituality is a source of sustenance, a way of knowing, a path of survival.” A Queer Arcana highlights how magical and alternative spiritual practices have been ever-present within queer culture and LGBTQ+ struggles for liberation, even when their significance has been obscured from dominant historical accounts.
Elijah Burgher
The Necromancers, 2025
watercolor and colored pencil on paper mounted to panel
23 5/8 x 19 3/4 ins.
60 x 50 cm
Using painting, drawing, and printmaking, Elijah Burgher (b. 1978) works at the crossroads of representation and language, figuration and abstraction, and the real and imagined. Drawing from mythology, ancient history, the occult, and ritual magick, Burgher cultivates a highly intimate code of sigils and emblems imbued with magical power to investigate the personal and cultural dynamics of desire, love, subcultural formation, and the history of abstraction. Burgher lives and works in Berlin. He received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute, Chicago, IL and a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY. Burgher has held solo exhibitions at P·P·O·W, New York, NY; Western Exhibitions, Chicago, IL; LAXART, Hollywood, CA; and Ivan Gallery, Bucharest, Romania; among others. His work was featured in Scrivere Disegnando: When Language Seeks Its Other, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Switzerland; Drawn Together Again, FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY; For Opacity: Elijah Burgher, Toyin Ojih Odutola, and Nathaniel Mary Quinn, the Drawing Center, New York, NY; the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Burning Down the House, the Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Republic of Korea; and The Temptation of AA Bronson, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, Holland; among others. He has completed residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and the Fire Island Artist Residency. In 2026, Burgher’s work will be featured in Tarot!: Renaissance Symbols, Modern Visions, Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY.
Daniel Correa Mejía
Comunión I, 2023
oil on jute
74 3/4 x 51 1/8 ins.
190 x 130 cm
Combining painting, drawing, sculpture, and writing, Daniel Correa Mejía (b. 1986) deftly mines imagery from his own subconscious to mythologize the landscape of his interior world. His highly symbolic figures personify various emotional states, becoming one with their scenery as contemporary society fades away and sacred, primordial knowledge is uncovered. Juxtaposing rich ultramarine with vibrant red on rough jute canvas, Mejía invokes the complimentary nature of masculine and feminine energies to summon the divine power of contrasting forces. Mejía was born in Medellín, Colombia and currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany. His solo exhibitions include Soy el dueño de mi casa, P·P·O·W, New York, NY; Cuando el depredador está lejos: los pájaros canta, Maureen Paley at Studio M, London, UK; Lucrecia, mor charpentier, Paris, France; Soy hombre: duro poco y es enorme la noche, Fortnight Institute, New York, NY; Amor y Agua, Public Gallery, London, UK; and Die Klarheit, Colombian Embassy, Berlin, Germany. His work is held in major public collections worldwide, including Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil; Museo de Arte Moderno Medellín, Colombia; Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL; and Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection, Madrid, Spain; among others. Mejía’s work is currently on view in the permanent collection exhibition Acervo em transformação at Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil. This June, Mejía will present his second solo exhibition with the gallery.
Installation views of A Queer Arcana: Art, Magic, and Spirit at Palm Springs Art Museum, March 28, 2026 – October 18, 2026. Photos by Lance Gerber. Courtesy of Palm Springs Art Museum
Installation views of A Queer Arcana: Art, Magic, and Spirit at Palm Springs Art Museum, March 28, 2026 – October 18, 2026. Photos by Lance Gerber. Courtesy of Palm Springs Art Museum
Installation views of A Queer Arcana: Art, Magic, and Spirit at Palm Springs Art Museum, March 28, 2026 – October 18, 2026. Photos by Lance Gerber. Courtesy of Palm Springs Art Museum
Installation views of A Queer Arcana: Art, Magic, and Spirit at Palm Springs Art Museum, March 28, 2026 – October 18, 2026. Photos by Lance Gerber. Courtesy of Palm Springs Art Museum
Installation views of A Queer Arcana: Art, Magic, and Spirit at Palm Springs Art Museum, March 28, 2026 – October 18, 2026. Photos by Lance Gerber. Courtesy of Palm Springs Art Museum
