“Inspired by the mystical works of Ithell Colquhoun (currently the subject of a major monographic exhibition at Tate St. Ives, travelling to Tate Britain). The Night Side of Nature will present three major paintings by Colquhoun, Nativity (1929), Roman Sun (1947) and Gathering Kelp (1949), alongside contemporary artists Claire Kerr, Alice Maher, and Penny Slinger. The exhibition examines Colquhoun’s engagement with surrealist ideas and magic, drawing connections between her mystical approach to nature, particularly the tension between rational thought and the occult, as well as the dualities of chaos and renewal. It will emphasise the continued relevance of Colquhoun’s vision in the context of today’s fragmented and chaotic world.

The title, drawn from Colquhoun’s essay The Night Side of Nature, published in The Glass Magazine, 1953, evokes “cataclysmic theories of the beginning and the end of the world” offering a profound meditation on death, rebirth, and transformation. Colquhoun borrowed the title from Catherine Crowe’s book of the same name, first published in 1848. In her work, Crowe advocated for the serious investigation of hauntings, doppelgängers, presentiments, and other supernatural occurrences.”