‘Tulipmania’ blossoms at art show Nov. 6-9

Award-winning fine art photographer David Leaser will present his critically acclaimed “Tulipmania” series, a collection of groundbreaking large-scale tulips, from Nov. 6-9 at the Art San Diego Show.

Using innovative space-age technology, Leaser features richly detailed images of botanicals in a way they have never been seen before. His “bee’s-eye” close-ups highlight details that traditional photography has been unable to capture until now.

Leaser developed his leading-edge technique by combining technology from NASA and Nikon. He compresses dozens of layers of photos together for each image, then enlarges them enormously. He then uses another innovative process to produce the final work: polished aluminum. He infuses the images into specially treated aluminum panels with heat and pressure.

“When you combine this photographic technique with this new medium, you get a piece of artwork unlike anything you’ve seen before,” he said. “The detail and rich colors are intense. It’s the difference between a high definition TV and a standard TV.”

Leaser launched his “Tulipmania” series earlier this year at New York’s premier Architectural Digest Show, where the collection on display sold out in 48 hours.

“Tulipmania” series features exotic tulips, including heirlooms grown from bulbs collected 500 years ago during the tulip craze in Holland. Several images, with their distinctive blood-red flames, are similar to Semper Augustus, once the world’s most sought-after flower. At its peak, Semper Augustus was worth the price of a city block of houses in 1600s Holland, sparking the world’s first economic bubble which burst when prices became overinflated and dramatically fell.

“Tulipmania” makes its California debut at Art San Diego at Balboa Park Activity Center in San Diego. See https://art-sandiego.com/ for details. The Art San Diego Show showcases the best in contemporary art and is committed to promoting San Diego’s art scene.