The feelings of horror and rapture collide at high speeds when viewing Lauren Marx’s work. The St. Louis-based artist creates beautiful vignettes that speak to the cycle of life. Rather than a cleaned-up, Disneyfied verson of nature, her paintings give us raw depictions of birth and death. Influenced my scientific illustrations and the Baroque period alike, Marx’s maximalist mixed-media works present these cyclical phenomena in visually appealing ways, often fusing the chaotic elements of nature into stylized compositions with an emphasis on design. Marx’s solo show, “American Wilderness,” opens at Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle on May 7.
