Keegan Cook

Mira Lehr identifies herself as an eco feminist artist who uses art with hard hitting topics like climate change and women’s rights to get her points across. Her sculptures highlight the importance of our oceans by creating beautiful work that pushes people toward the understanding of our costal environments.

Mira was directly affected by the topics she addresses in her work, living in Miami, she was witnessing rising sea levels in her back yard. She addresses topics like the effect we have on our surrounding environment in the Menello Museum in Orlando by giving the viewers time to reflect as they immerse and interact with these sculptures. Lehr says, “people are worried and they’re scared, and I think this reaches them on the level where they can connect with the climate and with the environment.” She also pushed hard for women’s rights by founding the first female artist collective named Continuum, helping women get their voices heard in a male driven art world.

The first work included, Mangroves, is a recreation of our natural sea walls made from iron rods wrapped in rope. It was located here at Orlando’s Mennello Museum of American Art and gave viewers the experience of walking through this underrepresented plant. Living in Florida, it’s clear to see the motivation she had for creating this piece, as mangroves are often destroyed in favor of urbanization and deforestation, when these peculiar trees are detrimental to Floridas ecosystem. They do things like prevent coastlines from waves, protect may different types of shellfish, filter pollutants from the water, and prevent erosion. Similar to Mangroves, her work Siren’s Song, also displayed at Orlando’s Mennello Museum of American Art, immerses you into her world. The mixed media piece provides a depiction of how Mira sees and hears what nature is saying to us though her artistic process, which includes igniting trails of gunpowder, adding a destructive element to the piece.

Mira Lehr stood out as a noteworthy artist because of her constant fight for what she believes is right for her whole life. I also feel a deep connection with the natural costal florida environment, making it easy to associate myself with her work. Using her artistic passion to convey messages and understanding of our environment and for women’s rights is truly inspiring. Both of these topics or themes are both still relevant in florida today, and are truly timeless works of art.

All images courtesy of the artist.

“About.” MIRA LEHR, miralehr.com/about. Accessed 20 June 2023.

Joseph. “Beneath the Waves, a Warning.” The New York Times, 11 Mar. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/arts/artist-mira-lehr-ocean-pollution.html.

Kubersky, Seth. “Mira Lehr Creates Art with Gunpowder, Rope, Mirrors – Whatever It Takes to Draw Attention to Our Warming Seas.” Orlando Weekly, 23 Apr. 2023, www.orlandoweekly.com/arts/mira-lehr-creates-art-with-gunpowder-rope-mirrors-whatever-it-takes-to-draw-attention-to-our-warming-seas-27762697.

Turne, Elisa. “Mira Lehr: Navigating Subtropical Florida’s Vast Arc of Nature.” Hamptons Art Hub, 18 May 2015, hamptonsarthub.com/2015/05/18/mira-lehr-navigating-subtropical-floridas-vast-arc-of-nature/.