Please join KMR Arts as we open our next exhibit, Catherine Erb: Frescoed Flowers, the artist’s fourth solo show at KMR Arts. The exhibition will be on view at KMR Arts from July 26 through September 20, with an opening reception on Saturday, July 26 from 2 to 6 PM.
Frescoed Flowers is Erb’s most recent body of work, examining the passage of time, through subject matter and in her creative process. The subject matter of Frescoed is flowers: blooms selected from lovingly tended family gardens, blue ribbon Garden Club of America winners, and flowers from personal arrangements such as Mother’s Day. Flowers are beautiful, yet temporal and fleeting. The specimens that Erb is working with have esteemed botanical and family histories. For example, the roses in the work titled Grandmamma have been in the same family for three generations, as the matriarch transplanted them from one home to the next as each subsequent generation came forth to claim them.
Each work in Frescoed Flowers begins in a garden. Erb gathers flowers and foliage directly from a site, arranging them on layered glass suspended over a mirror. She then photographs through the glass, capturing not only the specimens but also the reflected sky—creating the impression that the blooms are suspended midair. The resulting images offer a unique and poetic portrait of each garden’s personality. Inspired by the textured surfaces of European fresco walls, Erb prints the images on film and transfers them onto hand-built panels layered with Venetian plaster. This labor-intensive technique preserves fleeting natural moments in a permanent, tactile medium. The works speak to the enduring history and presence within gardens—places where memory, time, and growth intertwine.
Thus the impermanence of the botanical subject is then rendered permanent.
This ancient process, used in the Minoan era, Pompeii and the Italian Renaissance period, demands the artist’s full engagement, as she must work actively while the surface is wet. Once the surface dries, the window of creativity closes, and the final image must remain just as it is. Tweaking, fixing, editing, rethinking is not possible. The moment has passed. Much like time and life itself, the artist and thus, the viewer, cannot reimagine or change the past. It is fixed, immovable. The result is layered visually as well as emotionally. These works are simultaneously hyper real and dreamlike, luminous and clear.
“I want the viewer to see time in these pieces. It is about expressing age and intentionality.” Erb says.
“Catherine Erb has triumphed again as she marries a concept and a process to create work that echoes natural history and family history, something we all share.” says Kathy McCarver.
Catherine Erb’s work has been shown in solo exhibitions across the United States and featured in Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, The New Southern, and Nashville Arts Magazine. She currently resides in Memphis, Tennessee.
Please email kathy@kmrarts.com or call 917-856-9050 for more information regarding the event, artworks or to schedule an appointment for installation projects. Gallery hours: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 11am-5pm and by Appointment.
KMR Arts, 2 Titus Road, Washington Depot, Ct 06794
https://www.kmrarts.com/
