rapturous Alchemy

Virginia Bradley invites us into a space where painting, light, and water converge in a process that is as material as it is poetic. Inspired by the forms, textures, and colors of the coral reefs at Playa Santa Bay in Puerto Rico, the artist transforms pigments, binders, and solvents into compositions that seem to flow and erode, evoking the passage of time and the ceaseless motion of the sea.

Bradley, an abstract painter for over three decades and an experienced reef diver, understands her practice as a form of contemporary alchemy: a dialogue between chemistry, chance, and a search that goes beyond the purely physical. She frames alchemy not simply as the making of gold but as a quest for another level of consciousness; in the studio, uncontrollable chemical interactions allow the painting to take on a life of its own.

In this series, works are presented on translucent polyester sheets illuminated from behind with LED lights, creating the sensation of looking at water from beneath its surface. The viewer experiences a visual “rapture,” a suspended state between contemplation and immersion, as if floating among coral branches and swaying seaweed.

More than representing the sea, Rapturous Alchemy embodies it: its light, its movement, its mysteries. It is an invitation to drift into a liquid territory where matter transforms, and painting takes on a life of its own.

This exhibition also endeavors to raise awareness of the global plight of coral reefs due to climate change, merging aesthetic experience with ecological consciousness.

“In the ocean are many bright strands

and many dark strands like veins that are seen

when a wing is lifted up.

Your hidden self is blood in those, those veins

that are lute strings that make ocean music,

not the sad edge of surf, but the sound of no shore.”

— Rumi, The Diver’s Clothes Lying Empty