Step inside The Magicians Room and the imagery turns delightfully strange: a brawny horse bearing a coiled serpent, a flock of headless birds plunging toward a central star, and a fluffy white rabbit circled by unblinking eyes. This surreal, liminal space anchors a new body of work by Paris-based Lou Benesch, presented in a solo exhibition on view through August 22 at Hashimoto Contemporary in San Francisco.
Benesch takes the tarots Magician card as a point of departure. Known as a trickster-wizard who connects the heavens and earth and is primed for movement and change, the figures tilt toward action and mysticism becomes a framework for the artists approach. The result is a suite of dreamy works rendered on found and antique materials that give each composition a timeworn charge.
Materials, symbols, and a charged atmosphere
Vintage board games and chalkboards serve as aged frames for energetic mixed-media compositions, where graphic symbols and hybrid creatures appear to flicker between realms. Antique paper supports bold, two-dimensional scenes of otherworldly happenings. Across the presentation, Benesch melds past and present alongside the spiritual and the physical, sustaining an atmosphere in which dreams and manifestation seem to take precedence.
The motifs are vivid and uncanny: that muscled horse carrying a serpent like a living sigil; headless birds in formation, beakless and intent, arrowing into a radiant star; a white rabbit poised within a ring of watchful eyes. Titles from 2026 shown alongside the exhibition material include Keepers, The Magicians Room, Distant Chaos, Spirit Compass, Flowers, and Awake II, underscoring the projects blend of orientation and enigma.
Exhibition details
The Magicians Room translates tarots invitation to act into tactile, image-rich works that feel pulled from a cabinet of wonders: chalk-dusted surfaces, game-worn edges, and paper with a life before art. The exhibition remains on view at Hashimoto Contemporary through August 22 in San Francisco.
All images are courtesy of Hashimoto Contemporary, shared with permission.
