Psychedelic Art Scene Explodes

Every creative person who has ever taken a psychedelic drug or plant yearns to express the experience. 

Among the many astonishing things that psychedelic substances do to the human nervous system, they have a most extraordinary effect on visual perception, the imagination, and the optical cortex of the brain. 

Visual art that is reminiscent of the kinds of perceptual changes that psychedelics bestow upon our view of the world, and the extraordinary visions that one sees with closed eyes during a psychedelic brain state--ever-morphing, intricately-detailed, brightly-colored, otherworldly, complex, geometrically organized, and imbued with personal meaning--is often referred to as “psychedelic” or “visionary” art.

Psychedelic art is not always inspired by a drug-induced experience, but it often is, and like dreams and surreal art, visionary artists draw upon the unconscious as their source of inspiration. However, truly psychedelic paintings are charged with an unmistakable psychoactive intensity that clearly demonstrates that the artist has intimate knowledge of profound mystical states of consciousness. 

Sex, death, and spiritual transcendence are common co-mingling themes in psychedelic art, and this type of art is, of course, usually best viewed and most appreciated while one is under the influence of a psychedelic. Most people who have done psychedelics can instantly tell if a piece of artwork was inspired by a psychedelic experience or not, as knowledge of psychedelic mind states simply can not be faked.

Artists, musicians, and other creative people seem to take naturally to the psychedelic experience, and scientific studies by the late psychiatric researcher Oscar Janiger demonstrated that LSD can enhance the creative performance of artists. This doesn’t mean that LSD will necessarily make one more creative; rather, it means that if one already has a creative talent, then LSD has the potential to amplify this.

Psychedelic art is certainly nothing new. It’s been around for as long as human beings have been eating strange plants and painting on cave walls. Currently there are so many new and talented psychedelic artists emerging on the art scene that it’s hard to keep up. So this column is by no means meant to be an overview of this vast subject--as that would take an entire museum. Rather, this is a brief introduction to a few of my personal favorite psychedelic artists on the scene today.

Perhaps the best known and most celebrated of psychedelic artists is painter Alex Grey.

Grey’s work often depicts naked translucent people, as though they were caught in the midst of a mystical experience, with uncanny scientific precision. Grey’s paintings are painstakingly detailed, revealing anatomically accurate views of the inner body. Intricate blood-vascular configurations, eerie skeletal structures, and nervous systems that are exploding with electrical activity, are visible inside bodies that radiate spiritual auras, acupuncture meridians, and metaphysical energies.

The subjects are often engaged in activities that make the most of this incredible, eyeball-grabbing technique that “X-rays” multiple levels of reality simultaneously. Grey applies this multidimensional perspective to such archetypal human experiences as being born, dying, praying, meditating, and making love. I find that merely looking at one of his paintings can trigger a mystical state of consciousness. Grey’s work can be viewed at: www.alexgrey.com

Big Sur painter and poet Carolyn Mary Kleefeld juxtaposes ecstatic visions with the beauty of the natural world on canvas, and there is a profoundly joyous quality to her abstract expressionistic work. Her pieces seem like picture postcards from the highest Heavens.

Kleefeld paints portals into a higher-dimensional world that blends the organic fluidity of life with transcendent mystical qualities, alchemically weaving together an enchanted paradisical landscape that is inhabited by timeless mythic archetypes, unique biological forms and strange creatures, giggling nature spirits, and radiant explosions of erotic energy. Ms. Kleefeld’s work can be viewed here: www.carolynmarykleefeld.com

Computer graphic animator Brummbaer stylishly blends mathematical precision with sensuous human sexuality, and fabricates fantastic polymorphic worlds that look like photographs of ayahuasca visions. His animated alien worlds are composed of fractal-organized, interlocking tubular networks, and spinning hyperdimensional objects encoded with cryptic esoteric messages.

Brummbaer says that his philosophy of creativity stems from his notion that an artist is but a humble window washer. His computer screen is simply a window, he says, that allows us to see through into other worlds, and all he does is polish the screen so that we can see through them to the other side. Brummbaer’s work can be viewed here: www.brummbaer.net/

Several more personal favorite psychedelic artists, which I suggest you check out, include: Luke Brown, Robert Venosa, Martina Hoffmann, and Sara Huntley.

Martina Hoffmann’s extraordinary work can be viewed here: http://martinahoffmann.com/

Luke Brown’s enchanted work can be viewed here: http://spectraleyes.com/

The late Robert Venosa’s magical work can be viewed here: www.venosa.com

Sara Huntley’s beautiful visual and performance art can be viewed here:

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I’m currently editing the Spring, 2012 edition of the MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) Bulletin, which will be a special theme issue devoted to psychedelics and the arts. This will cover how psychedelics have effected (and been represented) in film, music, television, comedy, advertising, fashion, and other multimedia art forms. Anyone who is interested in contributing to this bulletin should contact me.

At MAPS’ 25th anniversary conference—Cartographie Psychedelica--on December 10th in Oakland, there will be a mind-blowing, eye-popping visionary art gallery called “The Kaleidoscope Vault,” where Sara Huntley will be performing.

To learn more about how psychedelics have influenced art see New York Times art critic Ken Johnson’s book Are You Experienced?: How Psychedelic Consciousness Transformed Modern Art. For more information see: http://artandpsychedelix.com/

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