Mira Lehr: 209 Ignition

By Irene Sperber

Japanese Rice paper, hair, woodblock prints, gunpowder, burnt paper, poured resin, acrylic, charcoal, photography. With artist Mira Lehr at the helm, you are not entirely sure what is involved at first glance but feel compelled to seek further insight into this complex vision. The brain “almost” knows what components are involved as the mind scans through a slide show in your mental library.

An Asian sensibility is an immediate first impression of Lehr’s large and multilayered pieces, though she admits the Asian suggestion bubbles through from no clear-cut personal experience. A strong theme of nature with a contemplative quality is in play throughout her many series. There is a soothing flow to her work that allows the eye to comfortably meander across surfaces with ease. Before being allowed to completely relax into the theme, the viewer can discern an element of turmoil in the subtly roiling background. The usage of material reflects this yin/yang perception; a piece with a floral quality is made with gunpowder in her “Burned Works.” The harshness of the shards of burnt edges is softened by the delicacy of a rice paper substrate, the ebb and flow of life played out on paper. Spherical shapes shoot thoughts of the Land of the Rising Sun flickering through in her canvas-based series.

Mira Lehr, Frozen in the Fire 2, 2011, mixed media on canvas with gunpowder, 72.5” x 88.” Photos: Michael Fryd

Abstract impressionist painter Hans Hoffman had a significant impact on Lehr. “Hoffman’s use of space and placement on the page influenced my work-now it’s intrinsic,” she says. “I see something that’s flat and volumetric at the same time.  I feel it in everything I do. I problem solve (in my work). When I start to get too comfortable, I change. My new pieces are more conceptual, not so pretty. My process changed, introducing new material: gunpowder, fuses, resins. I am now more narrative in creating  space.”  Time goes both fast and slow, Mira says. “Time is (indicated) with a fast burn, the gunpowder, and slow (indicated) with the resin.

Twenty-seven of these new works are exhibited for the first time in the Kelley Roy Gallery, marking Mira’s first return to Miami in 10 years. ”We loved her older work but (quickly realized) the new series is really dynamic,” gallery co-owner Susan Kelley says of the sculptures, videos and paintings on exhibition.

It is evident Lehr draws inspiration from a quiet and meditative personal space, and that viewpoint saturates the observer’s consciousness.

A Miamian for the bulk of her life, Lehr has benefitted from some impressive teachers in her career, including Abstract Impressionist James Brooks, New York School painter Robert Motherwell and architectural design guru Buckminster Fuller. A Vassar College graduate, in 1960 she left her early adult life in the maelstrom of a male-dominated Manhattan art world for the climate of a culturally neglected Miami, following her husband’s work. For survival, she co-founded a vital women artists co-op in Miami long before the Guerilla Girls started punching out of their invisible boxes in NYC (1985).  “These like-minded misplaced women did it with their own money,” says Lehr. “We brought down John Chamberlain, Betty Parsons, Jack Flam and Buckminster Fuller for talks.” The Continuum Gallery (1963-1990) boasted an important coterie of viable female artists, many of whom still hold clout in the South Florida art community today.

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Mira Lehr, Tropic of Capricorn, 2011, woodblock, gunpowder, acrylic, 75” x 48.”

Lehr is known as a deeply reflective artist, and just as you form an understanding of her work she creates another series that underscores that she is an ever-evolving entity whose ensuing pieces mirror the changing forms of nature. Consequently, she has been described as a visual poet, mistress of light, spiritual heir to O’Keefe and painter not of this world.

Lehr’s works are part of the permanent collection of the Miami Art Museum and FIU, as well as a participant in the Art in Embassies program and prestigious  institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

A rolling stone, Lehr has also dipped her brush into the world of design, collaborating with Odegard, adding her own splash to the company’s long list of beautiful one-of-a-kind area rugs.

Her exhibition at Miami’s Kelly Roy Gallery shows a new side of the artist, showing the more seasoned Lehr’s new collaboration with young New York video artist Yara Travieso. Two sculptures, V-1 and V-2, are in the video V-3.  They are made from Japanese rice paper encased in resin in a plexi-glass case strung along a motorcycle chain with a fuse threaded through. A soundtrack of the plexi squares hitting each other has been said to feel like a heartbeat. Says Kelley, “Mira reached back to move forward.”

“209 Ignition” was on view until November 12, 2011, but artworks from this exhibition can be appreciated at Kelley Roy Gallery. 50 NE 29th Street. Wynwood Art District. Miami, 33137. Phone: 305 447 3888 / www.kelleyroygallery.com. The video V-3 will be projected at the gallery from November 29 to December 4, 2011, 5-8 p.m.

Irene Sperber is a photographer and writer based in Miami.  She has exhibited her artwork internationally. Her articles, essays and photographs have been published in Miami Art Zine, The Examiner, South Florida, Casa y Estilo, and Art in America.