The Art Angle Podcast: What Can the Art World Learn From an Occult Practitioner?

Artnet News January 19, 2023 ShareShare This Article

Welcome to the Art Angle, a podcast from Artnet News that delves into the places where the art world meets the real world, bringing each week’s biggest story down to earth. Join us every week for an in-depth look at what matters most in museums, the art market, and much more, with input from our own writers and editors, as well as artists, curators, and other top experts in the field.

Here at Artnet News, we typically look to thorough data and the hard facts to tell us what to make of the wily, unpredictable art world. Every now and then, though, its important to remember that ours is an industry based on unorthodox minds and a reverence for avant garde expression, so magical thinkers ought to remain a legitimate resource to our team of reporters.

Thus, our reporter Annie Armstrong spoke with Micki Pellerano, who has earned himself the nickname “The Art Warlock”, to discuss the occult’s role in the art world, and why so many esteemed minds in our industry look in earnest to astrology for guidance.

Pellerano is an artist himself, working mainly in drawing and sculpture to express his affinity to ritual symbolism and esotericism. His work has been on view at esteemed spaces such as MoMA, the Serpentine Gallery, Brooklyn Museum, and the 2019 Venice Biennale. More than that, though, he is also the art world’s go-to astrologer, hosting one-on-one sessions to art world luminaries such as Jenny Hval and Alissa Bennet from his studio in Brooklyn.

His study of the occult is ongoing, and here, he asserts his belief that astrology’s impact is inextricable from the advancement of humankind, and certainly from the canon of art history.

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