News
“The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers.”
James Baldwin, 1962
James Baldwin, 1962
The Blue Lotus Foundation is proud to announce a new group exhibtion - Invocation: the shape of things - opening Friday May 9th, 6.30pm-8pm; featuring the work of Genie Poretzky-Lee, Jo Milne, Carol Laidler, and a new soundwork by Anna Walker.
Invocation: the shape of things. A group exhibition that brings together artists: Genie Poretzky-Lee, Carol Laidler, Jo Milne and Anna Walker. The four artists bring their own perspective to the practice of magic. Poretzky-Lee presents To the Sound of…, which incorporates sculptures from 2020, and new work. Milne exhibits delicate sculptural forms created in 2025; and Laidler displays 5 light photographs: The Mind’s Ear, with small texts from Chimera State. The soundwork by Walker links the words and voices of all the artists into a meandering, layered composition.
Jo Milne, PhD, is an award winning visual artist who works between Scotland and Spain. Her research focuses on the methodologies used by scientists, artists and visionaries to visualise the invisible. Her work has received awards from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation (Canada), the RSA (Scotland), Arena Foundation, AENA, Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain) and she has undertaken residencies at the Museu d’Art de Sabadell, the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the IRB Barcelona. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally, with solo shows at Fundació Vila Casas (Barcelona), Museu d’Art de Sant Pol (Sant Pol), La Sala (Vilanova), Can Manyé (Alella) and others at Talbot Rice Art Centre (Edinburgh), Widener Gallery (Hartford, USA), Espace Arlaud and Forum (Switzerland). Website: www.jomilne.com
Dr Anna Walker is a multi-disciplinary artist and researcher. An interest in the effects of trauma on the body, developed during her work as a psychotherapist led to a PhD in Arts and Media, completed in May 2017. Recent publications include: “When things fall apart, and the centre cannot hold,” May 2025, Monad: Journal of Transformative Practice; “Revisiting Jean-Martin Charcot’s photographs to reimagine the noise of hysteria,” Transtech Reader, December 2024; Recent exhibitions include: ‘We are the granddaughters of those who didn’t burn,’ video, Malta Centre for the Arts, September 2023. ‘The Dreamer Awakes,’ 2023 radio edit. Broadcast March 8, 2023. ‘The Wooing of Rhiannon’, March 23, 2023, Buckinghamshire. ‘Becoming Bird, I:Spring,’ Video, 2023. Website: www.anna-walker-research.com/
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Carol Laidler is an interdisciplinary artist based at Spike Island in Bristol. Her work explores the intersection of writing, sound and image with a focus on memory, perception and entanglement with the more-than-human.
The artworks ehibited are meandering probes through consciousness. The Mind’s Ear was inspired by the book: The Development of Consciousness in the breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes, which suggests that consciousness as we know it has evolved alongside language and culture. The written texts are excerpts from her ongoing project: Chimera State. The title refers to unihemispheric slow-wave sleep, the state between sleep and non-sleep predominately experienced by migratory animals. Website: www.carollaidler.com 
Genie Poretzky-Lee was classically trained in drawing and sculpture at the Academie Julian in Paris. She continued training in textiles when she moved to London and co-founded ‘Fibre Art’ alongside Professor Janis Jeffries. Inspired by alchemy, Poretzky-Lee’s practice developed into abstract painting in the early to mid 1990s. Her pastel drawings were inspired by geometry and her relationship to the square and to lines in space. Poretzky-Lee’s 3D work and installations included sound and light. Each collage or sculptural assemblage, whether ceramic, stone or wood, seeks to address the dissonances of her memories and alleviate the anxiety and fear of the past and the future. Website: www.genieporetzky-lee.com
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Catch up on the work of all the artists who have shared their work in the project space in our Archive.
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Over the past couple of years we have explored the work of many artists, with thanks to: Jo Milne, Davina Kirkpatrick, WhiteFeather Hunter, Rita Parniczky, Iris Garrelfs, Stacey Blythe, Rosalind Wilson, Daniel Davidsson, Carol Laidler, Carlos David, Andrew Spira, Yong, Min Cho, Moich Abrahams, Stephen Carter, Genie Portezky-Lee, Antoni Malinowski, Veronique Maria, Minami Kobayashi, Anna Walker, Rashid Maxwell, and Rosana Miracco. We sadly acknowledge the passing of artist, writer, poet and beekeeper, Rashid Maxwell. 1937- 15th February 2025.
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Genie Poretzky-Lee's project, Drawing A Year, 2022-2023, are images to be shared, still available as free gifts to whoever wants to acquire one. To request an image or purchase a book of 365 drawings visit www.drawing-a-year.com, or Instagram: drawing.a.year
Sunday 26th June, 2022. DRAWING: No. 349: 17. "80, PEH, the mouth. The living word." Mixed media on paper. 24cm x 32cm
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Tuesday 28th June, 2022. DRAWING: No. 347: 19. "KOPH 100, Blessing from Hanuman the monkey." Mixed Media in paper, 24cms x 32cms.
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The aim of The Blue Lotus Foundation is to support the new and the unusual. We are living through extraordinary times. Now, more than ever we need to nurture community, creative endeavours, and cultural events. We believe in the importance of the artist in shaping our awareness at a visionary as well as imaginative level, and in what it means to bring art and healing together in synthesis. As well as hosting exhibitions, we are also an open venue for small groups to meet and participate in film screenings, poetry readings and workshops. For the past ten years we have successfully held a variety of events presented by many wonderful artists. In addition we support authors to publish their first writings, such as Bika Reed, Aidan A. Dunn, Jay Ramsey, Genie Portezky-Lee and many more.
SUPPORT THE BEESThe Blue Lotus Foundation actively supports the preservation of nature and bee life. Join us and donate to The World Bee Project CIC - http://worldbeeproject.org/
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JAY RAMSAY
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