From the Author

Presencing in Art: Seeing, Feeling, and Becoming

13 Mar 2025

Have you ever stood before a painting and felt like it was looking back at you? Not just something you admire from a distance, but something that senses you too? That moment—when time slows, your mind stops explaining, and you simply feel—is the essence of presencing in art.

It’s not a new concept. It’s what great art has always done. Yet, in today’s world, where we rush from one image to another, we rarely let art meet us where we are. Presencing is about making that meeting happen—both for the artist creating and for the collector discovering.

What Is Presencing?

Otto Scharmer, who coined the term in his Theory U, describes presencing as the ability to sense and bring into being what is emerging, rather than being trapped in the patterns of the past.

Sounds deep? It is. But it's also beautifully simple.

Presencing is when you’re fully here, engaged with what is unfolding in front of you, without forcing meaning onto it. It’s when an artist lets the brush move without overthinking, and when a collector lets an artwork speak before they try to define it.

Now, imagine what happens when art is approached this way—when artists create with presence and buyers experience with presence. Art stops being a product and becomes an encounter.

For the Artist: Letting Art Emerge

If you’ve ever created something—painted, sculpted, or even scribbled on a napkin—you know the difference between forcing an idea and letting something unfold.

Many artists begin with a concept, but something magical happens when they lose themselves in the process. The work starts guiding them, rather than them controlling it.

This is presencing. It’s when the artist stops dictating and starts listening—to the brush, the material, the silence, and to something deeper within themselves.

The result? Art that breathes. It carries something alive in it, something the viewer will sense before they even understand why.

Think of artists like Rothko, whose colour fields aren’t just painted—they are experiences. Or the quiet intensity of a Giacometti sculpture—figures that seem to exist in multiple dimensions at once. These works weren’t just made; they were felt into being.

For an artist, practicing presencing is about allowing the unknown to shape the work. It’s about trusting what wants to emerge rather than forcing what they already know.

For the Collector: Encountering, Not Consuming

Now, flip to the other side of the equation—the collector.

How do most people buy art today?

They check the price.
They scan for names they recognise.
They look for what will fit well above their sofa.

But what if buying art wasn’t about owning something, but about encountering something that shifts you?

Presencing as a collector means pausing long enough to let an artwork find you. Not swiping through a hundred images, but stopping at the one that makes you feel something—even if you can’t quite explain it.

Have you ever met someone and instantly felt you knew them? That’s how art works. The right piece doesn’t need justification—it just clicks. But for that to happen, you need to be present enough to notice.

A collector who practices presencing doesn’t just pick art—they let art pick them. And when that happens, the relationship with the piece lasts a lifetime, because it wasn’t a transaction. It was a moment of recognition.