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In 1932, Paulina Peavy (1901 – 1999) attended a séance at the home of Ida L. Ewing in Santa Ana, California, where she claims to have met a UFO named Lacamo, a spirit from another world. From that moment forward Peavy, a university-trained artist, painted with a brush that “moved on its own.” In order to better channel Lacamo’s energies, Peavy also constructed and wore masks when she painted, occasionally signing her works with Lacamo’s name alongside her own.

Peavy said she learned the secrets of the universe from Lacamo, secrets that became the subject matter of her art. Over time, she developed a belief that the world evolved in 12,000-year cycles that are broken down into four 3,000-year periods corresponding to the four seasons. Key to Peavy’s philosophy is a belief in reincarnation, and after experiencing a 3,000-year Summer Age, the last of which occurred during the reign of the Egyptian pharaohs, people become spirits, or UFOs, inhabiting the universe as invisible atoms or electronic beams that can take on different forms when descending to Earth from the far reaches of the universe.

Peavy’s entire life was dedicated to promoting her worldview and various philosophies through drawing, painting, sculpture, text and film. Her works on paper, in particular, depict the artist’s individualized visual cosmos using shapes that resemble energy beams, solar systems, and procreative organic shapes signifying genitalia, ova, fallopian tubes, sperm, and fetuses. Peavy’s life and work were constantly evolving to reflect her belief in mankind’s evolution to an androgynous one-sex through contact with aliens.

Paulina Peavy was born in 1901 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She graduated from Oregon State College (OSC) in 1923 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Vocational Education and completed her MA at the Chouinard School of Fine Art in Los Angeles. As an artist Peavy lived in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California from 1932 to 1942, and later moved to New York City. She died in 1999 at age 98, having witnessed nearly the entire 20th Century. Her work was most notably featured at the 1939 San Francisco Exposition where she painted a fourteen foot mural titled The Eternal Supper, depicting her own philosophical belief in the one-gender perfection.

 

Born 1901, Colorado City, CO; Died 1999, Bethesda, MD.

EDUCATION

1919-23
Bachelor of Science degree in Vocational Education, Oregon State College
(Oregon State University), OR

1927-1932
Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA

1932-42
Art Educator, Board of Education, Los Angeles and Long Beach, CA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023
Paulina Peavy: Astrocultural Messenger, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY

2022
Paulina Peavy, The ADAA Art Show, Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY

2021
Paulina Peavy: An Etherian Channeler, curated by Laura Whitcomb, Beyond Baroque, Venice, CA

2019
Paulina Peavy/Lacamo: They Call us Unidentified, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY

2018
Paulina Peavy: A Message to Paulina, Greater Reston Arts Center (GRACE), Reston, VA

2016
Paulina Peavy: The Artist Behind the Mask, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY

2003
Exhibition of paintings, New Morning Bakery, Corvallis, OR

2002
Exhibition at Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, Corvallis, OR

1961
Exhibition at Crown Gallery, New York, NY

1956
Exhibition of twenty-three paintings, Lacamo Gallery, New York, NY

1946
Genesis, Atomic Forces of Nature, Lawrence Terzian Gallery, New York, NY
Paintings in rotunda of Roxy Theater, New York, NY

1945
Exhibition of paintings at Jurart Gallery, New York, NY

1944
Exhibition of paintings at Staten Island Museum, Staten Island, NY

1943
Paulina Peavy, Argent Gallery, New York, NY

1942
Special exhibition of last supper mural accompanied by public lecture and music, private residence, Long Beach, CA

1941
Debut exhibition of last supper mural, San Diego Fine Arts Gallery (now San Diego Museum of Art)

1939
Exhibition of thirty paintings, Temple of Religion, Golden Gate International Exposition, Treasure Island, San Francisco, CA

1935
Exhibition at Delphic Studios, New York, NY
Exhibition at Gumps Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Exhibition at Stendahl Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

1934
Exhibition at Stanford University Art Gallery, Stanford, CA
Exhibition at Gumps Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1930
Watercolors at Peavy Studio of Art and Architecture, San Pedro, CA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024
Modern Art presentation on BCAM, Level 3, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA              
Open Ended: SFMOMA's Collection, 1900 to Now, SFMOMA, CA
Lavinia, Hannah Hoffman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2021
Greater New York 2021, MoMA PS1, New York, NY
Supernatural America: The Paranormal in American Art, curated by Robert Cozzolino, Toledo Museum of Art, OH, Speed Museum, KY and Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN

2018
April 14, 1561, (Group Exhibition) Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY                    
Duende, Artists Translation Spirits, Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York, NY

2017                                                                                                                                                           
Clestrial Mechanics, Artworks Advisory, New York, NY

1967
Display of art and poetry at convention of the Congress of Scientific Ufologists, Hotel Commodore, New York, NY

1948
American Cancer Society display, Fifth Avenue department store windows, New York, NY

1945
Summer group show, Jurart Gallery, New York, NY

1936
Independent Artists Group, Laguna Beach Art Association, Laguna Beach, CA
Independent Artists Group, Stendahl Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Annual Exhibition, Foundation of Western Art, Los Angeles, CA
July group show, Stendahl Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Painters & Sculptors of Los Angeles (Annual Exhibition), Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, CA

1935
Painters & Sculptors of Los Angeles (Annual Exhibition), Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, CA
May group show, Palos Verdes Library, Palos Verdes Estates, CA
Annual sculpture exhibition, Palos Verdes Library, Palos Verdes Estates, CA
San Francisco Art Association Annual Exhibition, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA

1934
Group watercolor show, Laguna Beach Art Association, Laguna Beach, CA

1933
Professional Juried Division, Los Angeles County Fair, Pomona, CA
Annual Exhibition, Laguna Beach Art Association, Laguna Beach, CA

1927
Eisteddfod art exhibition, San Pedro, CA

AWARDS

1985   
Bronze medal at the 28th Annual International Film & TV Festival of New York, The Artist Behind the Mask

1984   
Silver Award at the International Film & TV Festival of New York for Male Sex

1983 
Bronze Award at the International Film & TV Festival of New York, Is the Moon a Burned-out Sun
 

1982
Bronze Award at the International Film & TV Festival of New York, Mountain of Myrrh
 

1981   
Bronze Award at the International Film & TV Festival of New York, Paulina, Artist-Philosopher, An Artist of Vision

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

2023 
Whitcomb, Laura. Paulina Peavy: Etherian Channeler, Andrew Edlin Gallery.

2019   
Kaplowitz, Jane. “Best of 2019: Artists’ Artists,” Artforum
O’Neill-Butler, Lauren. “Paulina Peavy and Lacamo,” Artforum
Rudick, Nicole. “Art on a Higher Frequency: Paulina Peavy Attended a Séance and Tuned into the Future,” Art in America
Deters, Alexandria. “Spirituality in Insanity, Revelation from Beyond; Paulina Peavy and Lacamo’s Cosmic Interpretations at Andrew Edlin Gallery,” eazel.

2018   
Jenkins, Mark. “Paulina Peavy’s postcards from the cosmos,” The Washington Post

1958   
Nebel, Long John, WOR Radio interview, New York, NY
https://youtu.be/v8piJgSijHo?t=2h28m20s
https://youtu.be/v8piJgSijHo?t=3h13m26s

1946   
Madra, Margaret. “In Awe of Creative Powers, Impressionistic Painter of Biblical Parable Has Theories on Atom,” Brooklyn Eagle

1943   
Riley, Maud. “Electronics’ in Paint,” Art Digest
“Mystic Symbolism,” The New York Times.

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
National Gallery, Washington DC
Oregon State University, Covallis, OR
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA

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