ARVIA MACKAYE EGE
Between Light and Darkness
July-August, 2026

At our Summer Satellite at Centerpoint Gallery:
138 West 15th Street, New York, NY 10011.

Lightforms Art Center is pleased to present a satellite exhibition of paintings and drawings by Arvia MacKaye Ege (1902-1989) at Centerpoint Gallery. Between Light and Darkness is a solo exhibition featuring diverse art of Ege, a pioneering figure in anthroposophy in America.

Known as a painter, sculptor, and poet, Arvia was a cultural light bearer of the highest order. Born on February 14th of 1902 into the family of American dramatist Percy MacKaye, Arvia and her immediate family lived a bohemian life, befriended by the likes of Robert Frost, Kahlil Gibran, Isadora Duncan, and Scott Pyle. Destiny took her to the Goetheanum as a young woman, where she attended lectures by Rudolf Steiner and the Christmas Foundation meeting of 1923. During these times she was privileged to have had private meetings with Steiner, receiving counsel on the direction of both her artistic and meditative work. As a Waldorf School art and handwork teacher, she helped found both the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City and the Hawthorne Valley School in Harlemville, NY.  

From early sketches to mature works in painting and drawing, this exhibition offers a rare opportunity to explore Arvia's creative legacy. Her artistic approach was filled with idealism, personal striving, and transparency for spiritual realities. What Arvia gained from anthroposophy and the guidance of Rudolf Steiner was a new aesthetic and themes for the dawn of the new age of consciousness in which we live, as well as artistic techniques for bringing them to expression. 

This exhibition is curated and installed by Finnish artist Sampsa Pirtola and Danish-American artist Zoï Doehrer, co-directors of Lightforms Art Center, and presented in collaboration between Lightforms and Centerpoint Gallery of Anthroposophy NYC.