The atmosphere inside was pleasant enough albeit a bit stark, but what won us over was the stunning large-format photography of Nathalia Edenmont. Strikingly brilliant in color and equally unsettling in imagery, Edenmont’s subject of choice is flowers, but inside each one she gently places a slick, glossy eyeball. What happens next is essentially a staring contest between the viewer and the artwork. We lost every time, but it didn’t stop us from wondering just who was looking at who and if we should have worn a hipper jacket.

The flower motif has been an important one for artists throughout history, partly for its accessibility in still lifes, but also because of its symbolism for a multitude of things such as sensuality, exoticism, beauty, transience, death, love, sexuality, artificiality, virtuosity and femininity. Buds for example, symbolize the untouched female and archetypal male dominance. Edenmont’s images suggest that the traditional motif is no longer about the study of beauty, but about self-examination and female empowerment.

SFist Shelly (who also took the picture of Nathalia Edenmont's Marriage, above), contributing