PENRHYS, ALUN (b. 1931, Llanfrynach, Wales , d. presumed 1988, location unknown)
British conceptual artist, widely regarded as the founder of Invisibilism. A former taxidermist turned avant-garde theorist, Penrhys proposed the radical dematerialisation of art in his 1972 “Abermyrddin Proclamations,” later privately circulated in a chapbook titled The Aesthetic of Absence. His early work, including Air on Plinth (1976) and Shed of Forgotten Objects (1974), rejected visual form in favour of implied presence. He famously vanished during a solo walking tour of the Brecon Beacons; some devotees interpret this disappearance as his final and most committed work. His legacy is maintained by the Invisible Archive at Swansea University, which contains no physical holdings.
LEFEVRE, CRESSIDA (b. 1947, Bath, England)
British performance artist and theorist known for pioneering the ephemeral sub-discipline of “auditory invisibilism.” Educated at the Slade School of Fine Art, LeFevre’s oeuvre is notable for its reliance on suggestion, misdirection, and post-sensory expectation. Gallery of Echoes (1981), her most widely discussed work, comprised a sequence of unlit, unadorned rooms navigated by blindfolded visitors under the guidance of recorded voices. LeFevre’s monograph On the Art of Not Knowing (1987) is considered a foundational text, articulating a rigorous phenomenology of the unseen. She continues to lecture in an empty lecture theatre at Goldsmiths, by appointment only, and never confirms whether she was present.
BAKER, L. DENVER (b. 1953, Topeka, Kansas)
American visual philosopher and former installation artist, Baker is known for introducing Invisibilism to North America in the late 1970s. His major works, including The Forgotten Monument (1980) and You Weren’t There (1984), use placards, GPS coordinates, and time-based disappearances to evoke conceptual absence. A central figure in the New York “Void Salon,” he engaged in fierce debates with minimalist contemporaries over the ethics of implication. His 1992 Guggenheim lecture, delivered to an empty auditorium with no recording devices permitted, is said to have been “career-defining, if irretrievable.”
BLUME, THEODOR (b. 1965, Berlin, Germany)
German architect, philosopher, and interventionist, Blume shifted to art after becoming disillusioned with the material rigidity of urban design. His hallmark piece, The Theft of Light (2008), presented at the Venice Biennale, consisted of invisible architectural plans allegedly capable of constructing utopian public spaces “within the ethical imaginary.” Blume’s texts frequently draw on Kantian metaphysics, particularly the noumenon, and his influence is pronounced in continental invisibilist theory. He currently teaches “Unbuildable Architecture” at an undisclosed location in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
MIYAGI, AYAKO (b. 1978, Sendai, Japan)
Japanese invisibilist and former calligrapher, Miyagi is known for developing the practice of “silent brushwork,” a technique in which characters are written in the air and retained only through muscle memory. Her installations, such as Letter to Nobody (2011), consist of nothing more than ritualised movement and ambient humidity. Often associated with Zen-inflected aesthetics, Miyagi’s interventions are profoundly meditative, rejecting visual and linguistic permanence. She has published only one text, Blankness: A Manifesto, printed in white ink on rice paper and subsequently composted.
REYES, FERNANDO (b. 1959, Quito, Ecuador)
South American theorist and urban mystic, Reyes pioneered “site-specific invisibility,” embedding absent works into culturally resonant but visually unremarkable spaces. His 1997 piece Statue of the Unremembered allegedly occupies a traffic island in Guayaquil; it is commemorated by no plaque, and Reyes refuses to disclose its dimensions or significance. A trained anthropologist, Reyes has argued that the invisible is not merely unseen but “deliberately unacknowledged.” He maintains a quiet cult following in Latin American conceptual circles and is occasionally invited to not exhibit at major institutions.
WORTHINGTON, ESME (b. 1984, Glasgow, Scotland)
One of the most prominent figures in contemporary Invisibilism, Worthington is known for her controversial “post-material critique,” which insists that even documentation constitutes “an act of visual betrayal.” Her project Curatorial Refusal (2019,2022) involved submitting empty grant applications to dozens of institutions, with accompanying essays explaining that refusal itself was the exhibition. A graduate of the Glasgow School of Art, she holds fellowships from several institutions unaware they awarded them. Worthington insists that any attempt to catalogue her practice constitutes “collaboration with the seen,” and is against all the tenets of Invisibilism.
