Paulette Tavormina | Portraits in Bloom

Paulette Tavormina

ARTIST NAME

Deb Achak is a visual artist and storyteller whose large-scale photographs explore the metaphysical and emotional link between the human and natural world. After stepping away from a 15-year career as a mental health social worker, Achak began her photography practice, employing a visual medium to continue her exploration of the interior lives of herself and others. Curious to examine the notion of our internal selves, she leans into the elasticity of photography by employing several genres within the medium. Achak’s practice includes swimming with her camera throughout the world, personal narratives created near her home, and painterly abstract florals inspired by baroque paintings. Each body of work is made with the singular ideal, to wrestle with what is under the surface in each of us.

Deb Achak’s work has been exhibited widely national and internationally, in institutions such as The National Museum of Anthropology in Tabasco, Mexico, The Lishui Museum of Art in Lishui, China, and The Sofia Photography Festival in Sophia, Bulgaria, The Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, the Southeast Center for Photography, Greenville SC, among many others. Her work has been featured in publications including Fraction, All About Photo, Lenscratch, Destig, Luxe Interiors, Dodho, and Domino.

Paulette Tavormina | Portraits in Bloom

October 30th - December 20th, 2025

Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York is pleased to present Portraits in Bloom, a new series of photographs by Paulette Tavormina. In her second solo exhibition with the gallery, Tavormina takes inspiration from 17th-century Old Master still life paintings, transforming their rich symbolism into contemporary photographic portraits of flowers.

Tavormina races against time to stage and curate each portrait in her studio after hand picking various fresh florals. Thus, rather than presenting flowers in traditional vases, she captures peonies, lilacs, dahlias, roses, tulips, foxglove, and more, in various stages of life, from tightly furled buds to petals in decline. Butterflies and insects often appear within her compositions, reinforcing the interconnectedness of the natural world while echoing the allegorical depth of Old Master paintings.

For Tavormina, flowers are not only symbolic but deeply personal. Her lifelong love of flora stems from childhood days spent in her grandparents’ garden on Long Island, where her grandfather’s plum, fig trees, and plate sized dahlias alongside her grandmother’s award-winning roses, left a lasting impression. Today, Tavormina continues that tradition, cultivating many of the flowers featured in her photographs from her own Connecticut garden. In Portraits in Bloom, Tavormina elevates these homegrown specimens into elegant, timeless compositions. Each work is both a meditation on beauty’s transience and a tribute to the enduring, intimate bond between memory, family, and the natural world.

ARTIST NAME

Deb Achak is a visual artist and storyteller whose large-scale photographs explore the metaphysical and emotional link between the human and natural world. After stepping away from a 15-year career as a mental health social worker, Achak began her photography practice, employing a visual medium to continue her exploration of the interior lives of herself and others. Curious to examine the notion of our internal selves, she leans into the elasticity of photography by employing several genres within the medium. Achak’s practice includes swimming with her camera throughout the world, personal narratives created near her home, and painterly abstract florals inspired by baroque paintings. Each body of work is made with the singular ideal, to wrestle with what is under the surface in each of us.

Paulette Tavormina lives and works in New York City and Connecticut. Her photographs are held in museum, corporate and private collections and have been exhibited in Paris, London, Moscow, Lugano, Madrid, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Palm Beach, Boston, Palm Desert and San Francisco. Tavormina also has a successful career as a commercial photographer, photographing Gucci’s Alchemist’s Garden Perfume campaign. She has photographed works of art for Sotheby’s, fragrances for GOOP, and recipes for The Del Posto Cookbook (Hachette) with chef, Mark Ladner. She has been commissioned by National Geographic Magazine and The New York Times, among others. Previously, Tavormina was a prop and food stylist in Hollywood, her work seen on the silver screen in seven films such as Nixon, The Astronaut’s Wife and The Perfect Storm. Most recently, she was invited to show her works at the Château des Joncherets showcase in Saint Lubin des Joncherets, France, which opens to the public in January 2026.

Deb Achak’s work has been exhibited widely national and internationally, in institutions such as The National Museum of Anthropology in Tabasco, Mexico, The Lishui Museum of Art in Lishui, China, and The Sofia Photography Festival in Sophia, Bulgaria, The Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, the Southeast Center for Photography, Greenville SC, among many others. Her work has been featured in publications including Fraction, All About Photo, Lenscratch, Destig, Luxe Interiors, Dodho, and Domino.

Grand Dahlias, 2024

Archival pigment print

Available in various sizes

Archival pigment print

Available in various sizes

Archival pigment print

Available in various sizes

Available in various sizes

Archival pigment print

Available in various sizes

Archival pigment print

Available in various sizes

Available in various sizes

Paulette Tavormina

Fritillaria, 2024

Archival pigment print

Available in various sizes

Available in various sizes

Archival pigment print

Available in various sizes

Archival pigment print

Available in various sizes

Archival pigment print

Available in various sizes

Available in various sizes

Archival pigment print

Available in various sizes

PAULETTE TAVORMINA SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

1949 Born in Rockville Center, New York

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2025

Portraits in Bloom, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY

2023

Fiori del Giardino, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY

Fiori del Giardino, Gilman Contemporary, Ketchum, ID

2021

Seizing Beauty, Gilman Contemporary, Ketchum, ID

2018

A Concert of Birds, Robert Mann Gallery, New York, NY

Seizing Beauty, Colnaghi, Madrid, Spain 2017

Seizing Beauty, Colnaghi, London, UK

2016

Seizing Beauty, Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame University, South Bend, IN

Seizing Beauty, Academy Art Museum, Easton, Maryland MD

2015

Paulette Tavormina, Osborne Samuel Gallery, London, UK England Beetles and Huxley, London, England

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025

Paulette Tavormina Photographs & Alicia Cheung Design, Chateâu des Joncherets, Saint-Lubin-des-Joncherets, France

Rooms with a View Designer Showcase, Southport Congregational Church, CT

Fiori del Giardino, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY

New Dimension in Photography, The Vibrancy of Color & Light, Holden Luntz Gallery, Palm Beach, FL

Come Together, Gilman Contemporary, Ketchum, ID

2022

Everyday Objects: The Enduring Appeal of Still Life, Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID

2020

Undying Traditions: Momento Mori, Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI

The Garzoni Challenge, Advancing Women Artists, Florence, Italy

Seizing Beauty, Colnaghi Gallery, New York, NY

2019

Garden Party, Catherine Couturier Gallery, Houston, TX

Sleep with the Fishes, Robert Mann Gallery, New York, NY

2017

Birds of a Feather, Robert Mann Gallery, New York, NY

2016

The Still Life: The Pleasure of Stopping Time, Holden Luntz Gallery, Palm Beach, FL

New to the Collection, Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame University, South Bend, IN

2015

Natura Morta, KMR Arts, Washington Depot, CT

Made to Capture, Hunterdon Museum, Clinton, NJ

Redline, Month of Photography, Denver, CO

Paulette Tavromina | Portraits in Bloom

October 30th - December 20th, 2025

Winston Wächter Fine Art

530 West 25th Street

New York, NY 10001

(212) 255-2718

nygallery@winstonwachter.com

Publication ©2025 Winston Wächter Fine Art

All rights reserved

Catalog Design by Nóra Reynolds

Cover: Dahlias, 2023

ARTIST NAME