Artist Austyn Weiner presents her latest exhibition "Half Way Through," on view through June 21 at Lévy Gorvy Dayan in Manhattan. The show features floral paintings inspired by her Los Angeles studio environment, the LA River, and her personal experiences of marriage and loss—including the deaths of her father, close friend, and grandmother within months. Weiner collected blooms at various stages of life and decay for the gallery installation, reflecting her fascination with flowers' life cycles.
This exhibition matters because it marks a deeply personal turn in Weiner's practice, using flowers as a metaphor for love, grief, and resilience. The show connects her earlier resentful relationship with flowers—explored in her 2017 LA exhibition "Here's Your Fucking Flower"—to a more mature, contemplative engagement with nature and mortality. It also highlights how contemporary artists draw from both art historical references (Monet's "Water Lilies") and their immediate urban surroundings.