Artists speculate, to address what can be, is or was. They imagine through their own experience - connections between things. In these new drawings, starfish appear as connections to the evolution of mankind. They are specimens that were prompted by my interest in Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man and my interest in starfish fossils from my investigations in the Burren in Ireland.

Leonardo Davinci based his Vitruvian man on his own proportions which was inspired by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius. We can look at the proportions of the starfish based on the Fibonacci sequence 5 which can be applied to the human body. The positioning of the starfish’s arms follows the Fibonacci sequence. Starfish can walk and have a complex nervous system; they feel pain. I imagine these 5 limbs are our beginnings. And maybe Leonardo had the same instinct.

Artist Bio

Mira Cantor, born in New York City and graduated with an MFA from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. Her career was established in painting, drawing and mixed media sculpture while teaching at the University of Hawaii in 1970. She became a fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT from 1978-80, where she taught drawing in the Dept. of Architecture. In 1994-95, she was awarded a Fulbright to Alexandria, Egypt where she taught and exhibited her work at the American Center. She has just received a residency in Tuscany for May 2025. 

Cantor’s solo shows include the Tokyo American Center in Japan, the BWA Gallery in Krakow, Poland, Hampshire College, De Cordova Museum, Fitchburg Art Museum, The Contemporary Arts Center, Honolulu, Gallery Lohrl in Dusseldorf to name a few. Cantor is included in the collections of the Danforth Museum, Rose Art Museum at Brandeis (drawing) and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (drawing), the Honolulu Academy of Arts and the Contemporary Arts Center of Honolulu. Her drawings have been exhibited at the Vienna Biennale, Norwegian Internationale Print Biennale as well as biennales in Yugoslavia, Krakow and Venice. She has work in many private collections here and abroad. There is a permanent exhibition of her police drawings at the Police Headquarters in Boston.

Currently, Mira Cantor is a professor at Northeastern University where she has been teaching art for 30 years. Until 2004, Cantor was represented by the Genovese Sullivan Gallery in Boston She has been a member of the Kingston Gallery in Boston since 2013. Her drawings have been curated in group exhibitions by William Stover “Passion” in 2003, “The Boston Drawing Show” curated by Carl Belz in 1998 and in 1993 curated by Cliff Ackley. She has spent several residencies in Banff, Canada, and Ballyvaughn, Ireland where her interest in nature, history and contemporary culture continue to seep into her work.