Untitled

Daten.d.

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions36 × 36 in. (91.4 × 91.4 cm) Frame Size: 37 7/8 × 37 7/8 in. (96.2 × 96.2 cm)

ClassificationsPainting

Credit LineGift of Gary Eleinko, 2022

Object numberUAC7275

DescriptionLynn Galbreath, a Detroit artist who grew up in Argentina, gained her Bachelor of Fine Art with Permanent K-12 Certification from The Gwen Frostic School of art at Western MI University and her Master of Fine Arts at Wayne State University. She had been on the Faculty of the Department of Art and Art History as an Adjunct Associate professor of Studio Art since 2000. She had also instructed Studio Art and Design at Wayne State University, Bloomfield University School, Macomb Community College, and the University of Detroit Mercy. She is currently retired. She is a recipient of the Creative Artists’ Grant from the Arts Foundation of Michigan and the Michigan Individual Artist grant from the Michigan Council for the Arts. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, and in collections at Wayne State University, Oakland University, the Children’s Hospital of Michigan, the Detroit Receiving Hospital, and in several private Collections.1 She is also the Co-owner and head designer of Galbreath Design since 1990, where she provides services such as marketing design, art direction, overseeing photo shoots, and print production supervision. 2

Galbreath’s main artistic mediums are mixed media, oil paint, graphite, and digital imaging. 3 Her only work in the Wayne State collection, Untitled, is an oil on canvas painting depicting several fish superimposed over a rug, an empty frame, a second, smaller frame with a picture of a flower inside, what could be a mirror, and what looks like several different plants, either dried or fresh, off to the left side of the image. This painting is as strange as it is whimsical, and although this seems like a random assortment of items, somehow, they all work together to form a unified and cohesive whole. The color scheme helps to bring everything together, with warm brown tones in the smaller frame and the edge of the mirror, a recurring, warm, crème color in what might be the fringe of the rug, the center of the mirror and smaller frame and the dried plants, and a darker brown, almost black for the center frame, which helps to direct the viewers’ focus towards the middle of the composition. The striped rug, which can be seen through the center frame, contains all of the previously mentioned colors and also adds to the overall cohesion of the piece. The fish, even though they at first may catch the viewer off guard, fit into the composition seamlessly, as they also contain the same colors of all the aforementioned objects in their uniquely patterned scales. The background, a distinct, warm yellow square over a solid maroon background, can be seen in small quantities in the other objects, solidifying the overall cohesion without being too repetitive.

The fish themselves seem to be swimming over the other objects, as they are upright and their tales all have a curve to them, hinting at some sort of movement. They all face the same way, towards the upper right corner of the painting, with four fish forming a bottom row, two fish forming a middle row, and one fish at the top, which creates a sort of forward momentum and clues the viewer in to where they might be headed.

written by Kayla Plenda

1. “Lynn Galbreath Exhibition, University of Michigan Events Calendar, accessed Apr. 20, 2026, https://events.umich.edu/event/142773
2. “Creative Design Solutions,” Galbreath Design, accessed Apr. 20, 2026, https://www.galbreathdesign.com/
3. “Lynn Galbreath,” Lynngalbreath.net, accessed Apr. 20, 2026, https://www.galbreathdesign.com/

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