Please join us at Swedenborg House on Thursday 18 September 6pm-9.30pm for the private view of our upcoming exhibition 'Elective Affinities'.
'Elective Affinities' is a landmark exhibition marking 100 years at its historic Bloomsbury premises. Running from 18 September 2025 to 27 February 2026, the exhibition will span all four floors of the building and bring together rare archival treasures with contemporary works by leading artists, filmmakers and writers.
Taking inspiration from the term coined in early chemistry, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s 1809 novel, and a celebrated painting by René Magritte, 'Elective Affinities' explores the mysterious connection between objects, ideas and inner experience. At its core lies the thought of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), whose philosophy of correspondences proposed a resonance between objects, places and events and our thoughts and affections.
All welcome, but RSVP required to
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INCLUDING: ALICE ALBINIA | CHLOE ARIDJIS | HOMERO ARIDJIS | FRANÇOIS HIPPOLYTE BARTHÉLEMON | WILLIAM BLAKE | ANDRÉ BRETON | THE QUAY BROTHERS | JOSEPHINE BUTLER | COLIN BUTTIMER | LEONORA CARRINGTON | JACOB CARTWRIGHT | PETER CARTWRIGHT | BRIAN CATLING | S T COLERIDGE | SHEZAD DAWOOD | QUEEN ULRIKA ELEONORA |TESSA FARMER | JOHN FLAXMAN | MARGARITA GLUZBERG | XIAOLU GUO | MARCELLE HANSELAAR | ASGER JORN | HELEN KELLER | DEAN KENNING | EDEN & ANDREW KÖTTING | T E LAWRENCE | PHILIP JAMES DE LOUTHERBOURG | KATE MCCGWIRE | DAVID MCKEE | STEPHEN MCNEILLY | SIMON MORETTI | PAUL O’KANE | MARK RILEY | IAIN SINCLAIR | ODA ISELIN SØNDERLAND | D T SUZUKI | EMANUEL SWEDENBORG | NATALIA ZAGORSKA-THOMAS | VERNON WATKINS | BEN WICKEY | J J G WILKINSON | VIKTOR WYND
ADDITIONAL NOMINATORS: REBEKKA CARTWRIGHT | ANTHONY FINNIGAN | RUFUS MOORE | ALEX MURRAY | DENISE PRENTICE | ANYA REEVE | ADAM SKIPPER | JAMES WILSON
CURATED BY: STEPHEN MCNEILLY
https://www.swedenborg.org.uk/events/elective-affinities/
Image: Left: Natalia Zagórska-Thomas, Nike, 2011. Mixed media. Photo: Franek Strzeszewski. © Natalia Zagorska-Thomas. Right: Shezad Dawood, The Black Sun, 2010. Wall-mounted neon, 110 cm, black wall. Courtesy the artist and Jhaveri Contemporary.
Also check out other Arts events in London, Exhibitions in London, Fine Arts events in London.
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