Lynne Drexler’s Brilliant Still Lifes at Elizabeth Moss Galleries

 Installation view, Lynne Drexler, Elizabeth Moss Galleries

By CARL LITTLE September 28th, 2026

In some ways, Lynne Drexler (1928-1999) was an outsider artist. While she took part in the New York City art scene back in the 1950s and ‘60s, Drexler ended up retreating to remote Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine, far from the madding crowd. She had little interest in playing the gallery game; she wanted to live her life and paint. The island proved the perfect spot for both.  

Drexler’s island work included a series of still lifes created in the last decades of her life, between 1983 and 1997. They represent, if you will, a final flare of energy from a brilliant colorist and some of her most individual artworks.

While flowers in a vase may represent a memento mori—the blooms will wilt and fade, reminding us of the fleeting nature of existence—not so Drexler’s floral studies. The five oils on canvas and nine crayon or colored pencil-on-paper pieces in “Interior Warmth: The Still Lifes of Lynne Drexler” give off a kind of radiance. Riffing on the show’s title, you could imagine gathering around them to warm yourself, a break from the sometimes-harsh island weather outside.

Each piece features a tabletop arrangement of flowers in a vase or planted in a pot. The title painting includes a totem-like liquor bottle in the center. Warmth, you could say, comes from a variety of sources.

Lynne Drexler Autumn Splurge Oil oncanvas 36 x 38in
 

Some of the pieces reflect the season. Autumn Splurge captures a riot of flowers that bursts from the vase and reaches to the edges of the canvas. A pumpkin adds to the fall color scheme.

The abstract patterned fields that serve as backdrops tie these works to Drexler’s acclaimed mosaic-like paintings from earlier in her career. Winter Arrangement, 1986, places a flower arrangement against a wall of small geometric shapes. The bouquet has an aura, as if giving off energy.   

    Lynne Drexler Winter Arrangement, Oil on canvas
 

If the crayon and colored pencil pieces are lighter in tone than the oils, they possess their own particular brilliance. Mostly untitled, they capture the glories of island gardens. The often-decorative vases complement the colorful arrays.

In several, Drexler includes a household item—a mirror, a ceramic rooster—to add to the action. As with the oils, the patterned backgrounds bring abstraction into play. Wavy, spotted, splintered: these fields of color are an integral element of the lively compositions.

These works underscore Drexler’s early influences, most notably, the Fauvist Henri Matisse and abstract artists Robert Motherwell and Hans Hofmann, with whom she studied. Matisse’s colorful freeform compositions, Motherwell’s inventive collages and Hofmann’s push-pull aesthetic add a special charge to her still lifes, lifting them from genre to a kind of genius.

Drexler fits into a vibrant line of flower painters, from Georgia O’Keeffe through Beverly Hallam and Carolyn Brady to such contemporaries as Samuel Gelber, Susan van Campen and Kayla Mohammadi. Like them, Drexler found light and joy in blooming things. They are a gift to all of us.

For more on the exhibition visit: Elizabeth Moss Galleries