Six Decades of Art Making
Mira Lehr graduated from Vassar College (1956) with a degree in art history, where she studied under the mentorship of Linda Nochlin, the renowned feminist art historian.
In the 1950s, Lehr lived and worked in New York as an artist, where she studied with James Brooks, Ludwig Sander, Robert Motherwell, and within the Hans Hofmann circle. During this time, she met some of America’s most prominent masters including Joan Mitchell, Lee Krasner and Helen Frankenthaler. Lehr has been recognized as the art world's version of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, because in the male-dominated art scene of 1950s New York, she was one of the few women artists of that era in New York City.
When Lehr moved back to Florida in 1960, she was shocked at the lack of an art scene, especially for women. She founded Continuum in 1960, one of the country’s first co-ops for women artists, which flourished for more than 30 years until the mid-'90s, through which she helped launch the careers of many local women artists whom she mentored. During this period, Lehr convinced many of the masters she met in New York to visit and lead workshops for her league of women artists. This helped the evolution of art in Florida, earning her acclaim as "The Godmother of Miami's Art Scene."
Lehr's work has been collected by major institutions across the U.S., including the Smithsonian Museum of American Art (Washington), the Getty Museum Research Center (Los Angeles), Perez Art Museum (Miami), the Jewish Museum of Florida (Miami Beach), the Orlando Museum of Art, the Bass Museum (Miami Beach), and the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center (NY), among many others.
Her work can also be seen in American embassies around the world and is permanently on view in the lobby of the Evelyn Lauder Breast Center of the Sloan Kettering Memorial Center. Lehr’s art is also included in the prestigious Leonard Lauder Corporate Collection in New York as well as the private collections of Elie and Marion Wiesel, Martin Margulies, Jane and Morley Safer, the collection of Robert Feldman, M.D., and the artist Judy Pfaff, among others.
Thirty of her paintings were commissioned for the permanent collection of Mount Sinai Hospital. She also received the Vizcaya Museum Lost Spaces Commission, for which she created a site-specific installation by the Vizcaya Museum & Gardens as part of Vizcaya’s centennial celebration.
Lehr’s solo and group exhibitions number over 300. Her exhibition, A Walk in the Garden, headlined Art Basel Miami Beach Week in 2019 with major national and international critical acclaim. Her video installation, V1 V3, was on view at the New Museum, New York.
Lehr’s work has also been included in numerous art fairs during Art Basel Miami Beach Week including Art Miami, Pinta Art Fair and INK.
