Florilegium
a gathering of flowers
New works by Joseph and Melinda Ostraff
Opening Reception & Artist Talk: Saturday, October 10, 2026, 3 to 5 PM
On view through October 31, 2026
SANTA MONICA, CA. Nüart Gallery presents Florilegium: a gathering of flowers, new
collaborative works by Joseph and Melinda Ostraff. The exhibition opens with a reception,
artist talk, and walkthrough on Saturday, October 10, 2026, from 3 to 5 PM, and remains on
view through October 31, 2026, at the gallery’s Bergamot Station location.
Florilegium takes its title from the botanical florilegium, an illustrated compendium of plants
that flourished in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Part scientific record and part art
object, the florilegium was an act of collecting and ordering the natural world. Melinda and
Joseph Ostraff take up that tradition in a series of paintings shaped by a visit to The
Huntington in San Marino, California, whose gardens exemplify the careful selection,
arrangement, and cultivation of plant life found in historic gardens.
The work draws on a long lineage in Western garden design, particularly the enduring idea of
the garden as a return to Eden: a place of harmony, order, restoration, and beauty, whether
understood literally or metaphorically. Botanical forms serve as the artists’ conceptual ground,
treated not as neutral subjects but as carriers of cultural value, shaped by shifting ideas of
use, beauty, and control. Like the gardens that inspired them, these paintings hold a
productive tension. They celebrate acts of care, selection, and arrangement while quietly
asking what is altered, displaced, or left behind in the process.
Having worked side by side for more than forty-four years, the Ostraffs build their paintings
through a genuinely shared process, each responding to the other’s marks on the surface.
Through an expansive range of painterly processes, they push paint as material, resulting in
less a blending of two styles than a negotiated visual language in which both voices remain
distinct.
Melinda holds a Ph.D. with an emphasis in ethnobotany, the study of relationships between
people and plants, and works in encaustic and with inks she makes from plants. Joseph,
professor emeritus of art at Brigham Young University, has led more than thirty collaborative
projects across art, design, music, and dance with partners in England, Ireland, Tonga, New
Zealand, and the United States. He is also a three-time recipient of the Utah Artist Fellowship.
Together, they were featured in season one of BYUtv’s Artful and recently completed a
four-week artist residency at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in Ballycastle, County Mayo,
Ireland, followed by a four-week collaborative residency at The Averitt Art Center in
Statesboro, Georgia.
Gallery Information
Bergamot Station Arts Center
2525 Michigan Avenue, Suite B4, Santa Monica, CA 90404
Gallery Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Media Contact
Diana Cignoni
Nüart Gallery
(424) 900-3888 • fineartla@nuartgallery.com
www.nuartgallery.com
