ART REVIEW : 3-Photographer Exhibit Zooms In on a ‘Flowers’ Theme

A three-photographer exhibit on a “Flowers” theme might seem about right for the sunbaked brains of summer. But pretty is as pretty does, and there’s not much newsy activity here.

Debra Heimerdinger’s “Wallflower Series” points up blandly obvious contrasts of bloomin’ brightness and architectural decay. Tulips grow out of cracks in a wall, irises perch in a desolate corner, calla lilies in a Mason jar preen in a dark, ravaged room.

The photographer, who is based in San Francisco, also shoots images that she calls “Botanical Specimens” (in one, a row of irises is laid out solemnly on a milky plastic material) and “Flower Re-arrangements,” one of which juxtaposes white magnolias with chunks of white Styrofoam in a tissue-lined box.

McKinleyville, Calif., photographer Dar Spain throws an aura of nostalgia over her hand-colored flower images, often shooting the blossoms against or within old-fashioned containers of one sort or another.

A calla lily lies immaculately across an ashtray with gold initialed borders. Another lily, tinted blush pink and light blue, rests inside the tinted red-velvet interior of an open metal box.

Mark Matthews of Ventura, who happens to work in a plant nursery, selectively spray-paints dense carpetings of leaves and flowers, using separate petals and blossoms removed from their stems as well as whole flowers.

“Rose Drops,” a Cibachrome photograph of red, pink and yellow petals strewn on pink-and-blue leaves, looks almost like a printed fabric.

In another photograph, orange and yellow tulips and “decapitated” tiger lily blossoms lie in a tempting design on a carpet of brown and green leaves. Despite the contemporary patterning he employs, Matthews seems to be dealing with the life cycle of nature in a way not that far removed from the 16th-Century painters, who created the flower still-life genre.

“Flowers” continues through July 30 at Susan Spiritus Gallery, 3333 Bear St. (Crystal Court, Space 330), Costa Mesa. Admission: free. Hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. Information: (714) 549-7550.