Lydia Panas
End of Red Dahlias (2138)
34″ x 45″ or 24″ x 29″, Limited Edition Signed Archival Pigment Prints, Editions of 5
Gross McCleaf Gallery is pleased to present All The Dahlias, a solo exhibition by visual artist Lydia Panas. Featuring eight striking photographic prints, All the Dahlias transforms the familiar beauty of flowers into a meditation on awareness, transformation, and emotional depth. Rich in color and texture, these images layer the lush vibrancy of freshly cut blooms with the delicate transience of fading petals, presenting a nuanced exploration of time, memory, and personal transformation.
Panas, a first-generation American raised between Greece and the United States, is known for her perceptive and psychologically charged portraiture. In All the Dahlias, she shifts her focus from the human figure to botanical still life, yet the same themes of presence, connection, and introspection remain central. Inspired by the tension between belief and knowledge, light and dark, beauty and decay, Panas' images capture what she describes as, "the difficulty of facing uncomfortable truths." As she explains, "The flowers in this work are not about flowers. They represent growth and change... Holding on to pleasure is about understanding the darkness as well."
Pink Dahlias and Pine Needles (1743)
34″ x 45″ or 24″ x 29″, Limited Edition Signed Archival Pigment Prints, Editions of 5
Shot from above into a wheelbarrow filled with layers of fresh and wilting dahlias, these compositions balance the formal qualities of still life with an intuitive, painterly process. "The process does feel like abstract painting," Panas notes. "Working with composition, light, and color." The natural light, shifting throughout the day, enhances the deep saturation of the petals, while the reflective water and scattered pine needles introduce a dynamic interplay of textures. While Panas typically works with a view camera and large format film, this series was created with a medium-format digital camera, allowing her to work quickly as she documented the fleeting life cycle of the flowers over the course of two months.
All the Dahlias extends themes Panas has explored throughout her career—intimacy, transformation, and the subconscious. Just as her portraits invite viewers into a charged, psychological space, these floral compositions hold their own intensity. They evoke both the rich traditions of Dutch still-life painting and a contemporary reevaluation of beauty and impermanence. "Old stories are part of who we are," Panas reflects. "And we need to understand them to move on." By embracing both the lushness of life and the inevitability of change, All the Dahlias invites viewers to reflect on their own perceptions of beauty, time, and personal evolution.
Lydia Panas is a visual artist working with photography and video. A first-generation American, she was raised between Greece and the United States. Panas’ work investigates identity and what lies beneath the surface, exploring the tensions between presence, memory, and emotional depth. Her images are made in the fields, forests, and studio of her family farm in Pennsylvania, a landscape that deeply informs her artistic vision.
Panas' work has been exhibited widely in the U.S. and internationally and is included in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Bronx Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Palm Springs Art Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, among others. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Hyperallergic, and Photo District News, among others. She has received numerous awards, including repeat invitations to the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize Exhibit, the Top Fifty Winner for Critical Mass, and two nominations for the Prix Pictet. Panas has held artist residencies at MASS MoCA and the Banff Centre for the Arts and has been a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome.
She holds degrees from Boston College, the School of Visual Arts, and New York University and has published three monographs: The Mark of Abel (Kehrer Verlag 2012), Falling from Grace (Conveyor Arts 2016), and Sleeping Beauty (MW Editions 2021). She divides her time between a farm in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, and New York City.
End of Summer Dahlias (1318)
34″ x 45″ or 24″ x 29″, Limited Edition Signed Archival Pigment Prints, Editions of 5
