Spring Blooms: Flowers in the Art of Kate Breakey & Sandra Luehrsen

February 2 to March 14, 2006
Gallery

During the late winter and early spring, the Sonoran Desert shows its most dramatic floral displays. In honor of Mother Nature’s ephemeral beauty, our Spring Blooms exhibit presents work by two Arizona artists who each have created a large body of work dealing with flowers, both wildflowers and cultivated varieties, as their subject.

Kate Breakey’s larger than life, radiantly hand-colored, close-up photographic portraits of flowers document the fleeting brilliance of individual blooms. Australian born Breakey, who is represented by several galleries across the country, including Tucson ’s Etherton Gallery, has gained international recognition in recent years. Her photographs have been shown in numerous exhibitions around the world, including the Tucson Museum of Art. Her work is held in several public collections, including the University of Arizona ’s Center for Creative Photography, and has been published in a book, Small Deaths, by the University of Texas .

The twining flower elements and richly glazed surfaces of Sandra Luehrsen’s floral clay sculptures compliment Breakey’s flowers and, like the photographs, the sculptures also function as a memorial to something that once was alive. Each of Luehrsen’s flower pieces is dedicated to the memory of one of her ancestors. This historic significance is reinforced by the works’ lovely glazes and forms that recall the style of ceramics practiced by artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Members may remember Luehrsen’s sculpture from the garden and teapot shows in recent years. Her work is represented in numerous public and private collections.