Kate Breakey, Watsonarctia deserta, Archival pigment print handworked with pencil and pastel, Image size 12 x12″
When consummate craft combines with passionate vision the results can be remarkable. Kate Breakey’s large, hand-colored photographs of moths at the Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art are a splendid example of expertise and artistry conjoined with heart.
Breakey is an Australian artist whose work often focuses on subjects from nature. In her exhibit, “To the Dark and Endless Sky,” Breakey does for moths what John Singer Sargent did for society matrons.
Moths are seldom anyone’s favorite insect. They are typically seen as flying beige pests that regularly destroy your favorite sweaters. Breakey’s portraits are of moths she has collected from around the world, and their dazzling beauty confounds any rigid profiling a box of mothballs can portend. The sheer diversity and unexpected patterns and colors of their wings rival the greatest collection of kimonos anywhere. There is even evidence of their furry texture, which adds to their ineffable presence.
There are 90 portraits in the show, each one installed in a different vintage frame in a salon installation designed by the artist. Although the scientific name of each species is listed on the installation list, Breakey does not include the origins or habits of her insects. She is not interested in a biology thesis as much as representing the extraordinary beauty and complexity of this maligned species. There is a reason her photographs have been exhibited around the world and acquired by numerous museums.
The gallery also includes another exhibition of Breakey’s photographs in which she uses the orotone process, in which gold leaf is applied by hand to the reverse of the image. This technique was famously developed by Edward Curtis at the turn of the 20th century to add depth to his renowned photographic series of Native Americans. Breakey’s orotones are primarily pictures of nature such as rivers, trees, swamps, flowers, and eclipses, but she also includes female nudes and still life imagery. When the lights are turned off, the photographs radiate with an unearthly glow.
Her still life photographs have the appeal of vintage 19th century American paintings by such artists as William Michael Harnett and her images of the moon possess a surreal beauty. Each of these works is produced in an edition of 20, but she will no longer be making them because of the cost of gold.
The main gallery at Sherry Leedy highlights a recently found group of works on paper by the late artist Wilbur Niewald. The former head of the painting department at the Kansas City Art Institute painted and drew until the end of his long life, notably landscapes and still lifes. The artworks featured here are decades old, and many of them are from the earliest period of his career when he worked abstractly. They are some of the freshest pieces this artist ever produced, filled with vitality and creativity, and a real find.
“Kate Breakey: To the Dark and Endless Sky” and “Wilbur Niewald: A Found Portfolio” continue at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, 2004 Baltimore Ave., through May 23. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. For more information, 816.221.2626 or sherryleedy.com.
