In Full Bloom by Susan Hall: A Preview of Pressed Flower Collage Portraits & Other Related Works by Bruce Helander
Artist in Residence
Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens
West Palm Beach
EXHIBITION October 21, 2026–January 10, 2027
Essays by Susan Hall & Elizabeth Sobieski
Project photography by Tyler Sargent and Christopher Fay
DESIGNED BY DAN ELLIS
Bruce Helander found his way to Palm Beach in 1982 to open an art gallery on Worth Avenue as well as a studio for his own artwork. Helander earned a master’s degree in painting from the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design in Providence and established himself at the age of twenty-nine as a distinguished college administrator, serving as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at the college as well. He left a secure academic position and moved to Palm Beach to explore utilizing his executive skills and professional relationships in a different, stimulating creative environment, which allowed him to be both a practicing artist and art gallery director at the same time. Helander continued to employ his unique method of maneuvering and cutting paper collage shapes into recognizable abstract expressionist compositions. The time away from his demanding academic schedule produced impressive and inventive collage works as well as prestigious gallery representation in Manhattan (Marisa del Re Gallery) and Los Angeles (Don O’Melveny Gallery). During this time, he also became a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine and began writing critical art reviews for The Huffington Post and numerous other art publications.
It was during the early years in his academic career that he became a White House Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts, and later as a successful artist he was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 2014, propelling his career and professional reputation.
Helander continued to possess a curiosity for vintage paper and a keen interest in manipulated flower compositions that evolved into abstract portraits beginning with embellishing classic images of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci and a fascination with Warhol’s interpretive facial silkscreen portraits of Marilyn Monroe.
In his latest series of intuitive portraits, he has borrowed from his earlier connection with celebrity portraiture (including director David Lynch, movie producer Mike Medavoy, and Dale Chihuly among others) and developed a series of facial representations that have been embellished with real dried flowers that form a human face. His first pressed flower commission a few years ago was of the glass artist Dale Chihuly in Seattle for his birthday. The reaction was positive and enthusiastic, which was the inspiration to develop a series of dried flower portraits of familiar and historic personalities in Palm Beach. The results materialized into an offer for a collage portrait show at the prestigious Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens in West Palm Beach in their galleries. Helander also was named Artist in Residence for the duration of the exhibition, which opens in late October and continues through January 2027.
A few years ago, Helander and his wife Claudia moved to Wellington, Florida, motivated by a large amount of available home properties that would complement his wife’s flower design business. The most enjoyable part of the move turned out to be the daily ritual of walking around the property after feeding the birds, squirrels and rabbits to discover overnight blooms in their yard, from angel trumpets to hundreds of orchids that now grow and multiply naturally in their grove of trees, which were later pressed for future use. At the beginning of this daily ritual the Helanders were picking up overnight fallen blooms and placing them in baskets to be dried out.
It was fortuitous that some of the orchid blooms resembled facial impressions, with blue spots resembling a pair of eyes and nearby ferns as appropriate outlines for hair. Now, each morning the blooms are ceremoniously handpicked and quickly pressed in between the pages of heavy, vintage, bound copies of The New York Times circa 1930-1948. Each page of floral material needs to be dried out and pressed flat and is then removed and sorted into boxes in categories from color and shape. The boxes, like scraps of potential collage paper, then become a de facto artist’s palette so that Helander can select individual delicate blooms that seem to fit naturally into the feminine character of the majority of his facial portraits.
As an art critic, Helander began researching opportunities linked to plants as editorial subjects. Recent related books published by Helander are “Flower Power—The Paintings of Carol Calicchio” and “The Sustainable South Florida Garden by Kim Frisbie.” He also has written other books, including “Chihuly – An Artist Collects” (Abrams, Inc.) and “Hunt Slonem – Bunnies.”
The upcoming exhibition at the historic Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens will showcase these remarkable floral compositions depicting historic women who are important contributors to the Palm Beach community from charities to distinguished leadership positions, and in many cases also made a name for themselves through giving generously of their time, energy and financial resources. The exhibition also will display a series of painted floral arrangements in patterns on canvases as well as other works by Helander that incorporate an abstract flower composition.
The Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens, established in 1977, are located at 253 Barcelona Road, West Palm Beach and the Norton Home on the Gardens’ grounds is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The exhibition opens to the public on October 21 with a formal opening scheduled for mid-December. For more information, please go to: https://ansg.org/
Helander will also deliver an illustrated lecture/collage workshop at the Society of the Four Arts (100 Four Arts Plaza) in Palm Beach during the exhibition on Saturday, December 12, 2026. He will be featured at the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County booth sponsored by Paul Fisher Gallery during Art Palm Beach at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, January 27–31, 2027 (650 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach).
