At the Basis of Magic

At the Basis of Magic convenes 12 artists who engage magic and ritual practices as forms of knowledge that challenge dominant ways of understanding the world. Responding to the Bay Area’s ecologies, technologies, and histories, the exhibition considers the region as a resonant site for reconsidering relationships between bodies, labor, and resources.

In recent years, ritual, spellcraft, and the figure of the witch have been prevalent in contemporary art and popular culture. This persistent fascination reflects a desire to reconsider power and connection in moments shaped by political uncertainty and ecological crisis. Though frequently flattened into a generalized “witchiness,” such practices have never been a monolith, instead remaining rooted in the distinct cultural, ecological, and historical contexts from which they emerge. Still, in the words of witch studies scholars Soma Chaudhouri and Jane Ward, a kinship exists among those who are “brewing, cultivating, transforming, manifesting, concocting, invoking, and otherwise taking action to bring new forms of consciousness into being.”

Across painting, installation, photography, film, and performance, the artists in At the Basis of Magic activate spellcraft and the occult as alternative technologies of knowing. Ritual becomes a tool for navigating uncertainty, sensory engagement a strategy for healing, and ceremonial performance a blueprint for living beyond extraction and control. The exhibition asks what becomes possible when we make space for enchantment as a method for relating to the world.