CHRISTOPHER MARLEY
Christopher Marley is an artist, designer, photographer and author who uses preserved natural specimens as his medium. He grew up in Oregon, then spent over a decade working in dozens of countries in fashion advertising.
Through his travels across five continents, Marley found that there were still enigmatic organisms and minerals to be discovered in every biome he explored. His life’s work is to broaden the world’s appreciation for these little-known or misunderstood elements of nature.
Marley’s passion for order and design economy is uniquely incorporated into his work with obscure organisms. It is his belief that threat of the unknown we naturally feel can be subordinated to the love for non-human life—or Biophilia—we also innately possess. Marley’s work is to remove much of the threat from obscure organisms by focusing his work on their physical design elements. When experienced as an element of a geometric composition, a texture study or a color story, even the most fearsome organisms can be experienced with fresh eyes.
Marley collects or reclaims his subjects in an environmentally sensitive manner using a worldwide network of people and institutions that share his passion for nature. With a brilliant eye for color, pattern, and texture, Marley explores the deep relationships between vastly different natural objects and the love and unity we intrinsically feel with them and nature as a whole.
He maintains design studios in Oregon and Malaysia where he develops new methods to preserve natural artifacts of all kinds. His three dimensional art pieces are sold and acclaimed worldwide. Marley’s popular first book, Pheromone (Pomegranate, 2008) focused on his artwork with insects and was listed as one the best books of the year by The Times (UK). His second book, Biophilia (Abrams, 2015) was a NY Times bestseller. Marley’s new “Exquisite Creatures” book is the most comprehensive of his works and was recently released in 2023.
