This month I am especially grateful to be exhibiting the work of late abstract eco-feminist artist Mira Lehr. I had such great admiration for Mira. I adored her not only for her success in the art world - her work was recently acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and features prominently in the Florida art scene - but I loved her unabashed enthusiasm and energy for matters she was passionate. In December I was invited to her home and studio, it was such a joyful day for me as we spent many hours talking, looking at her art and selecting the pieces for our current exhibition. What an incredible woman! For decades she was a staunch advocate for our environment, using her art and her voice to bring awareness to climate change. With solo shows from New Orleans to Palm Beach to Massachusetts, her environmentally-minded art incorporated unconventional media, featuring light-handed interpolation of materials such as rice paper, gun powder, and steel which embodied and embraced the complexity of the natural world.
However, the climate change battle wasn't the only one Mira was on the forefront of throughout her career; Lehr was a trailblazer for women artists since the 1960's, when she co-founded one of the country's first co-ops for women artists in Miami Beach. The co-op, Continuum, was a mainstay in the city's art scene for three decades, as Miami began to develop from a "cultural desert", in her own words, into a full-fledged artistic destination. However, the evolution was not equally fruitful for all; "It was terrible," she explains, describing the environment towards women artists at the time, "A lot of my friends wouldn't sign their first name, just an initial so people wouldn't know they were women." As a response to this injustice, Lehr was instrumental in bringing a number of mentors and masters to work with women artists in Miami in the 1970s and '80s, and pushing the scene towards a more progressive future.
Known as the "The Godmother of Miami's Art Scene", Mira established herself as a leading voice in both the environmental and abstract expressionism movements of the last few decades. Her rare combination of ideological conviction and fine artistic expression shines through Mira's bright, haunting works – they don't ask you to look, they dare you to look away, and you'll find that you can't. Her work is a force of nature; like the themes she dealt with, and like the woman herself. Her presence on the Miami art scene will be dearly missed by artists, collectors, and art lovers; however, her monumental legacy remains. This month, we celebrate Lehr and the countless other spirited, willful women who made space in art for women like us at C. Parker Gallery.