Mira Lehr, sometimes referred to as the real-life Marvelous Mrs. Maisel of the art world, is a nationally acclaimed eco-feminist artist. She gracefully balanced pioneering the male-dominated art scene of the 1950’s mid-century era with raising a young family much like Marvelous Mrs. Maisel did with New York’s comedy scene.

Lehr graduated from Vassar College in 1956 where she studied Art History under her mentor Linda Nochlin, a well-known feminist art historian. From 1956-1960 Lehr had an art studio at Carnegie Hall in New York while she raised her children. While in New York she took advantage of the opportunities it offered and studied painting within the Hans Hofmann circle meeting many famous American artists such as Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, Lee Krasner, James Brooks, Ludwig Sander and Robert Motherwell. 

In December 1960 she moved her family to Miami Beach but upon arrival, Lehr was taken aback by how women artists were treated. She and other women around her struggled to get an opportunity to showcase their work. To combat the prejudice she was experiencing, Lehr founded “Continuum,” one of the first women art collectives.

“So we decided to take matters into our own hands and banded together our group of women artists to form Continuum as a working co-op to showcase women artists when no else would, and it thrived for more than 30 years,” Lehr said. 

Nearly six decades later, Lehr is still in her prime as an artist at 87 years old.

“I no longer feel as though I have those Masters of art history sitting on my shoulders, watching what I’m doing. I am more of an explorer now. I can now create in a more powerful way. I find that this realization often comes late in life, after a long career and I believe my sixty years of work has made me, in Hans Hofmann’s words, ‘search for the real’ in a more profound way.”

This year, during Women’s History Month, “Continuum” celebrated their 60th anniversary by displaying Lehr’s works at the Kimpton EPIC Hotel Miami. The work displayed focuses on the menacing cloud of climate change that seems to hang over everyone’s heads. Lehr experiments with the use of fire. The natural element is, as she describes, “controlled and abused by man” and has become a driving force for her work lately. 

“Drawing with fuses and loose gunpowder on top of subtle hand drawing, I set the entire work ablaze, embracing the risk that such a gesture could destroy my entire painting. Afterward, only a trace of the flame’s path remains, bringing an exciting energy to the work and the suggestion of destruction,” says Lehr. 

Eleanor Heartney wrote in her essay for Skira Editore’s new book about Mira Lehr, “She is well aware of the challenges that face us, and she has the advantage of a long perspective. In over sixty years that she has been active as an artist, Lehr has lived through any number of social upheavals,” Heartney says. 

Heartney goes on to explain that these paintings reflect Lehr’s conviction that the current crises are on a planetary scale and using a wide range of new techniques and materials, Lehr has shifted her work into new activist directions that push the limits of painting. 

“She leavens her message with a seductive beauty that is designed to inspire contemplation about what is at stake,” Heartney adds. 

Heartney isn’t the only one who has found Lehr’s art profoundly moving. Lehr’s work, full of rich conversation, touches the hearts and minds of many. Her art can be found in major institutions across the U.S. including the Smithsonian Museum of American Art and the Getty Museum Research Center and more. Her artwork is also held in the private collections of Eli and Marion Wiesel, Jane and Morley Safer, Judy Pfaff, among others. 

Ericka Nelson, general manager of Kimpton EPIC Hotel and director of operations for Kimpton’s Florida hotels said, “Today, sixty years later, Lehr is recognized as one of the early influencers who helped Miami become an epicenter of creativity and diversity, and her new art continues to inspire new generations throughout her six decades of propelling the art movement forward.”