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Set Pieces Lisa A. Frank SHERRY LEEDY CONTEMPORARY ART
SHERRY LEEDY CONTEMPO sherry leedy contem
Set Pie
J U DY O N O F RLis IO September 4 - October 24, 2026
Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art 2004 Baltimore Ave. Kansas City, MO 64108 Gallery Director: Sherry Leedy Catalog Design: Celina Curry Find us at: sherryleedy.com IG: @sherryleedycontemporaryart FB: @sherryleedycontemporaryart Cover: The Epic Return of the Sandhill Crane (detail) This page: The Conversation (detail)
ORARY ART PRESENTS: porary art presents:
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sa A. Frank
Set Pieces S ept em ber 4 - Oc tobe r 24 , 2026 Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art is pleased to present “Set Pieces,” showcasing photographer Lisa A. Frank’s work from three distinct series spanning 20092025. Throughout her career, Lisa Frank has explored themes related to environment, nature, pattern and place. Over the last two decades, she has taken thousands of photos of her experiences in nature, creating a visual diary of raw materials. This photographic journal-keeping has become integral to Frank’s understanding of what it means to be alive and of this world. These “snapshots” of the natural world have become part of her ever-growing reference library of remembrances. In the studio, Frank chooses elements from her field photographs that best communicate her first-hand experiences, reimagining them as parts of tapestries, landscapes, and interior tableaux. Frank’s most recent series, “Remnants,” combines fragments of the natural world with decorative patterns and motifs. Scale and perspective are manipulated as photographic elements are layered into fantastical landscapes, where the wild and the decorative become intertwined. These visual tapestries are stitched together from memory with wonder, tenderness, and concern for the natural world’s uncertain future. The series “Captive Splendor” began in November 2020 as Frank traveled to fifteen zoos throughout the United States to photograph animals in captivity with the intention of staging them inside the Thorne Miniature Rooms—on permanent display at the Art Institute of Chicago—as updated natural history dioramas, or “set pieces.” 4
These works were created during a period when a global pandemic altered our sense of home, health, and safety. As our lives were miniaturized, so too were the animals that Frank photographed. Like a paper-doll cast of characters in a one-room drama, the animals interact with Mrs. Thorne’s scenic realism in ways more characteristic of human behavior than their own. Part dollhouse, part theatrical set, part tableaux, the reimagined rooms use digital taxidermy to juxtapose the wild with the cultivated. The earliest works in the exhibition are from the “Tapestries” series and reveal many of these same impulses. Frank’s early professional experience designing patterns for fabrics, wallpaper, and theater sets directly informed the development of this series. These works reveal Frank’s process of positioning and posing elements from her original photographs to construct complex patterns with a haphazard, imperfect symmetry. Pattern flattens realistic-seeming scenes, transforming them into decorative “tapestries.” Through these settings, dramas, and once-observed details, Lisa Frank’s photographs draw the viewer into a world where the familiar is reimagined, encouraging a connection with nature that is inclusive, accessible, and charged with 5
Remnants In Remnants, Lisa A. Frank pieces together fragments of memory and photographs of the natural world into richly detailed digital tapestries. Sandhill and Whooping Cranes feature prominently among plants, insects, and decorative patterns. By manipulating scale and perspective, Frank transforms realistic scenes into imagined landscapes, reflecting her wonder, tenderness, and concern for the natural world’s uncertain future.
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“For a few moments, drinking light...” Digital photograph Edition AP/1 2025 37” x 29.5”
The Conversation Digital photograph mounted on aluminum composite Edition 1/4 2025 33.25” x 45.375”
The Unbidden Miracle of Chance Digital photograph Edition 1/10 2025 22.75” x 32”
Following spread: The Epic Return of the Sandhill Crane (triptych) Digital photograph mounted on aluminum composite Edition 1/4, 2024 Side panels 46” x 17.5” • Center panel 46” x 35”
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Installation view: Northwest gallery
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When Dinosaurs Became Birds Digital photograph mounted on aluminum composite Edition 1/5 2025, 34” x 40.5”
Aransas Whooping Crane Flock Digital photograph Edition AP/1 2025, 29” x 36”
Captive Splendor In Captive Splendor, Lisa A. Frank digitally stages animals photographed at zoos within the Thorne Miniature Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago. These imagined scenes juxtapose the wild with the cultivated, placing animals in domestic settings like characters in a theatrical production. Created during the COVID-19 pandemic, the series explores themes of captivity, confinement, and our changing sense of home and safety.
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Tennessee Entrance Hall Grevy’s Zebra (endangered), Ring-tailed Lemur (endangered), Cardinal, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Ostrich Digital photograph, edition 5/15 2022, 33.75” x 36”
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English Dining Room of the Georgian Period Ankole Cattle, Somali Wild Ass (critically endangered), Sandhill Crane Digital photograph, e dition 1/15 2022, 24” x 32”
English Entrace Hall of the Georgian Period Timber Wolf, Addax (critically endangered),Arabian Oryx (vulnerable), Blackbuck (near threatened), Axis Deer, Dama Gazelle (critically endangered), Gemsbok, Nile Lechwe (endangered), Common Waterbuck, European Red Deer, Fallow Deer, Crow, Guinea Hens Digital photograph, edition 1/15 2022, 21.25” x 32”
South Carolina Ballroom Reticulated Giraffe (endangered), White Cheeked Gibbon (critically endangered), Vulture, American White Pelican, Mourning Dove Digital photograph, edition 1/15 2022, 26.25” x 32”
French Provincial Bedroom of the Louis XV Perio Grizzly Bear, African Painted Dog (endangered), Bar Headed Goos Digital photograph, edition 1/1 2022, 21.5” x 32
Fre Hum Cal Dig 202
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ench Bathroom and Boudoir of the Revolutionary Period mboldt Penguin (Vulnerable), lifornia Sea Lion, Mallard Duck, Ibis gital photograph, edition 1/15 22, 21.5” x 32”
Following spread: French Salon of the Louis XIV Period Cheetah (vulnerable), Angolan Colobus Monkey (vulnerable), White-handed Gibbon (near threatened), Alaskan Brown Bear, Macaw Digital photograph, edition 2/15 2022, 23.75” x 32”
French Salon of the Louis XIV Period • Cheetah (vulnerable), Angolan Colobus Monkey (vulnerable), White-handed
Gibbon (near threatened), Alaskan Brown Bear, Macaw • Digital photograph • Edition 2/15 • 2022 • 23.75” x 32”
English Drawing Room of the Early Georgian Period Asian Elephant (endangered), Grey Crowned Crane (endangered), Galah Digital photograph, edition 2/15 2022, 23.5” x 32”
Virginia Dining Room Galapagos Tortoise (critically endangered), Aldabra Tortoise (vulnerable), Pancake Tortoise (vulnerable), Radiated Tortoise (critically endangered), Blue Morpho Butterfly (threatened), Greater Flamingo Digital photograph, edition 1/15 2022, 23.25” x 32”
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Tapestries In Tapestries, Lisa A. Frank draws on the art forms of interior decoration to explore themes of environment, nature, pattern, and place. Her photographs observe the wildness of nature while taming it through formal patterning and composition. Frank creates richly complex, accessible worlds that invite viewers to experience the familiar natural world in new ways, charged with wonder.
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In My True Love’s Hands Digital photograph, edition 5/10 2009, 42” x 44”
Feared, Loved Digital photograph, edition 8/15 2013, 45” x 44”
(Detail)
Biography Lisa A. Frank is a Sony Alpha+ photographer and a MacDowell Fellow in photography. She holds an MFA in Design Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she has taught textile design in the Design Studies Department and digital photography in the Art Department. Lisa also holds a BS in art education from the UW-Madison and a graduate certificate from the Yale School of Drama. Lisa has led nature photography workshops at Penland School of Crafts and the Aldo Leopold Nature Center on the subject of discovering the natural world using technology-based tools. Lisa’s meandering path to photography has connections to a childhood growing up in rural Illinois where she was able to freely explore the out-of-doors. Her father founded a summer stock theatre and as a teenager, she helped out—painting scenery, running a follow-spot, building props—loving it all. After completing an undergraduate degree, she moved to NYC for an internship at Juilliard to focus on set design and painting in its Stage Department. This was followed by three years at the Yale School of Drama and many years working as a union scenic artist at the Metropolitan Opera and in Broadway and film scene shops. As her interests changed, she began designing textiles, wall-coverings, and decorative surfaces for high-end interior projects.This decades long history of painting ornate, operatically-scaled back drops and designing wallpaper patterns continues to influence her photographic work (she painted the oversized floral pattern shown behind the elderly couples in “When Harry Met Sally”—in 1988!). Sometime along the way she bought her first digital camera and a clunky Macintosh II, took some photoshop courses at SVA and found that a new game was on. She moved back to Madison to be closer to family and subsequently went back to school to get an MFA. This gave her access to great equipment and oppor-
tunities to experiment with new technology. Always enthused by interdisciplinary projects, Lisa was chosen to be a Senior Research Fellow at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She was the first artist/collaborator to be given this distinction. With the Living Environments Lab at UW-Madison and the Visualization Lab at the U of I, Lisa was an early developer of virtual reality content that was created to be specifically experienced as an art exhibition. She has since developed nature themed VR apps used in hospitals as a pain reduction tool for children. Lisa’s growing body of work is exhibited in galleries and sold as limited edition fine art prints. Known for its engaging nature-themed content, her work is collected by major health centers and hospitals. She has also received many commissions to create work to be used in hospitality, corporate and education settings. All along the way, the acquisition of new skills has kept her creative process lively. She’s a life-long learner! Although this might seem like a complicated narrative, the through-line relates to having a committed creative life that evolves over decades. Lisa lives in rural Wisconsin with her partner and a menagerie of wild and domesticated animals. 41.