Biophilia - by Christopher Marley (Hardcover)

About the Book

Christopher Marley's art expresses his passionate engagement with the beautiful forms of nature. Beginning with insects and moving on to aquatic life, reptiles, birds, plants, and minerals, Marley has used his skills as a designer, conservator, taxidermist, and environmentally responsible collector to make images and mosaics that produce strong, positive emotional responses in viewers. Marley has a brilliant eye for color and pattern in different natural objects, and he expertly captures the deep relationships among them. Biophilia (literally, "love of living things") is a must-have for nature lovers, designers, artists, craftspeople, and anyone looking for visual inspiration in the arts.

Book Synopsis

A New York Times bestseller, Christopher Marley's Biophilia is a collection of his creative art made from the natural world and wildlife.

Christopher Marley's art expresses his passionate engagement with the beautiful forms of nature. Beginning with insects and moving on to aquatic life, reptiles, birds, plants, and minerals, Marley has used his skills as a designer, conservator, taxidermist, and environmentally responsible collector to make images and mosaics that produce strong, positive emotional responses in viewers.

Marley has a brilliant eye for color and pattern in different natural objects, and he expertly captures the deep relationships among them. Biophilia (literally, "love of living things") is a must-have for nature lovers, designers, artists, craftspeople, and anyone looking for visual inspiration in the arts.

"Christopher Marley's Biophilia is much more than a sumptuous coffee-table pleasure. It is also an elegant manifesto meant to nudge us off our couches and easy chairs and out the door." --New York Times

"Nature can seem messy, chaotic, even frightening, but in Christopher Marley's world, it's a bounty of useable materials that can be infinitely organized and aestheticized." --Slate

Review Quotes

"As an artist, [Christopher] Marley offers a perspective on nature that's more corporeal than conceptual. It manifests itself in clean lines and axes--orbiting specimens that have passed from life to deities of art."-- "Audubon.org"

"Christopher Marley's Biophilia is much more than a sumptuous coffee-table pleasure. It is also an elegant manifesto meant to nudge us off our couches and easy chairs and out the door."-- "The New York Times Science Times"

"Even the hard categorizations and taxonomies of a natural history museum don't hide the beauty of the world. . . . But rarely do you get to see those specimens side by side. . . . Marley chooses his juxtapositions carefully to emphasize the full spectrum of color displayed--and replicated--in the natural world. His chosen flora and fauna bring out each others' best hues."-- "Wired.com"

"Nature can seem messy, chaotic, even frightening, but in Christopher Marley's world, it's a bounty of useable materials that can be infinitely organized and aestheticized."-- "Slate"

"While (Christopher Marley's) work is motivated by aesthetics, many of the artist's mosaics tell scientific stories, particularly those that include organisms that are genetically related but live in different parts of the world. . . . He painstakingly arranges according to color to highlight their striking visual relationships."-- "Smithsonian.com"

About the Author

Christopher Marley is an artist and designer who uses natural artifacts as his medium of expression. To create this work, he collects specimens in an environmentally responsible manner from a worldwide network of people who share his passion for nature. His popular first book, Pheromone (2008), focused on his artwork with insects. He lives and works in Oregon.