Palm Springs Art Museum is preparing to debut A Queer Arcana: Art, Magic, and Spirit, an ambitious exhibition tracing more than a century of queer engagement with mysticism, esoteric practices, and spiritual world‑building. On view March 28 through October 18, the show brings together works by 35 artists from 1909 to 2026, exploring how LGBTQ+ creators have long turned to occult knowledge, ritual, divination, and speculative cosmologies as tools for identity, resistance, and transformation. As the press release notes, the exhibition “explores how queer artists across generations have turned to magic, esoteric spirituality, and occult knowledge as tools for survival, resistance, and world‑building” .
Presented through the museum’s Q+ Art initiative—which centers LGBTQ+ artists and histories—the exhibition is organized into six thematic sections. Visitors will encounter early occult drawings by Austin Osman Spare, whose 1913 treatise The Book of Pleasure introduced theories of automatic drawing and sigil magic, displayed alongside contemporary reinterpretations by Elijah Burgher and Genesis Breyer P‑Orridge. Curator‑at‑Large David Evans Frantz emphasizes that “queer artists, activists, and cultural producers have long sought spiritual practices outside the mainstream to affirm their identities, build community, and envision new ways of being” .
Another major section highlights tarot’s reinvention by queer artists, featuring original works from Rachel Pollack’s The Shining Tribe Tarot and Devan Shimoyama’s glittering, rhinestone‑studded Le Monde (2024), which reimagines The World card through a queer lens. Additional sections explore Indigenous spiritual cosmologies, eroticism as a sacred force, and artistic practices that bridge physical and spiritual realms.
The exhibition also includes rare newsletters, books, and magazines documenting the long‑standing presence of magical and alternative spiritual practices within queer culture. Materials such as WomanSpirit magazine and writings by Wiccan priest and activist Dr. Leo Louis Martello illustrate how countercultural spiritual beliefs fostered community and new visions of queer belonging.
Featuring artists including Marsden Hartley, Agnes Pelton, Naudline Pierre, Hilma’s Ghost, Nao Bustamante, Lezley Saar, and many more, A Queer Arcana stands as one of the museum’s most expansive explorations of LGBTQ+ creativity. Executive Director Christine Vendredi notes that the exhibition “highlights artistic practice as a site of imagination, inquiry, and possibility” .
Supported by donors to Q+ Art, the Trellis Art Fund, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the exhibition reinforces Palm Springs Art Museum’s role as a national leader in championing queer art and artists.
Learn more at the Palm Springs Art Museum website: https://www.psmuseum.org/art/exhibitions/queer-arcana