Biography
Baltimore artist Lauren Silex comes from generations of a creative family. In her own life, she has created beaded jewelry, needle-punched rugs, oil paintings, watercolor, wearable art and hand painted furniture. A concern for the environment in 2008 finally led her to cut paper collage and the use of recycled materials in her artwork.
Portraying natural subjects like insects, birds, fish and mammals, she uses storytelling to illustrate how the natural world interacts with and is affected by civilization. After applying acrylic paint to a wood substrate, Silex meticulously cuts and glues hundreds of pieces of paper from the pages of magazines and art books on architecture, gardening, construction, pottery and art quilts. Working intuitively, each individual scrap is chosen specifically for its color, pattern or text to help tell the tale of a particular creature. The piece is then embellished with detailing in ink, oil pastel or gold leaf. The result is multilayered and rich with meaning.
Lauren Silex graduated from Prince George's Community College and the Maryland College of Art and Design. She has had solo shows in Los Angeles and Baltimore, and her work is in several private collections around the country. Published on the covers of the Free State Review and The Mighty Line, and Gone Lawn literary journals, her collages have also been awarded Best in Show and People's Choice in 2019 and 2020.
Artist Statement
Silk moths and townships; rabbits and row houses; beetles and architecture. My work explores ways of storytelling within the confines of body and border. The depiction of literal borders between humans and nature, between civilization and living wild is a story of cause and effect. Each creature portrays adaptation, future coexistence and the connection between all forms of life.
Meticulously cutting, layering and gluing hundreds of tiny pieces of paper from recycled magazines and books is an act of extreme control, yet while my hands are cutting, my mind is intuitively listening to the voices of the inhabitants of a surreal, dream-like world. Certain patterns, images or words on the scraps of paper capture the identity and personality of each creature. The image and the story grow during the making and the result is a portrait rich in meaning and texture.
Inspired by the fruit and vegetable portraits by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, the paper "mosaiks" of Mary Delany and the detailed illustrations of John James Audobon, my cut paper collage portraits tell a story of who we are and how we affect the natural world. I want the viewer to be drawn ever closer to these creatures, to be engaged completely in the tale, and to consider their own actions and decisions in our current Eden.
CV
EDUCATION
Maryland School of Art and Design, Certificate in Graphic Art, 1979
Prince George's Community College, Associate in Fine Art, 1978
EXHIBITIONS
Solo, 2021, Red Canoe Cafe, Baltimore MD, Kacey Stafford
Group, 2021, "Local Color", Ellicott City MD
Group, 2021, "Bearing Witness", Baltimore MD, Jessica Devilbiss
Group, 2020, Highlandtown Gallery Holiday Show, Baltimore MD, Felicia Zannino-Baker
Group, 2020, Art AntiSocial, Baltimore MD, China Rae and Renee Taylor
Group, 2020, Overlea ArtsFest, Baltimore MD, Mark Sanders, Carol Stover
Group, 2020, "The Great Big Bug Show", Hive Artspace, York PA, Susan Scofield
Group, 2020, “Women and Nature”, Maryland State Arts Council, Baltimore MD, Laura Amussen
Group, 2019, Overlea ArtsFest, Baltimore MD, Mark Sanders, Carol Stover
Solo, 2019, “Eden Remade”, Batch Bake Shop, Baltimore MD
COLLECTIONS
"Each Spring I Sow the Future", 2021, Shannon Callahan
"Flight Pattern II", 2020, Susanne Sproll
"Lillian's Garden", 2020, Kara Gagnon
"Hope's Embers", "The Memory of Emerald", "Spring's Memory", 2020, Scott Faw
"Quarantine Garden", 2020, Jonathan Camacho
“Thoughts, Like Golden Seeds”, 2020, Kate MacGruder
“Prescription for a Pandemic", "Tenacity, Fortune, Bravery and Love”, 2020, Stanley Jacob Salazar
“The White Raven", "Sapphire Cloud Seeder”, "hope Blazes", 2019, Stanley Jacob Salazar
“Death's Head Pollinator”, 2019, Chris Maex
“Eden Remade: #74”, 2019, Morgan Woodson
“Celestial Fish Angel”, 2018, Pilar Lynch
COMMISSIONS
“Hope's Embers", 2020, Scott Faw
"Tenacity, Fortune, Bravery and Love”, 2020, Stanley Jacob Salazar
PUBLICATIONS
WA International, Volume 1 Issue 2, April 2022
Quaranzine, Premier Issue, October 2020
Gone Lawn, Summer Solstice Issue 37, June 2020, cover
Feral: A Journal of Poetry and Art, Issue 2, July 2020
Brushfire Literature and Arts Journal, Edition 72, Volume 2, June 2020
Twisted Vine Literary Arts Journal, Spring 2020, cover
Feral: A Journal of Poetry and Art, Premier Issue, April 2020
Free State Review, Issue 12, Winter/Spring 2020, cover
Free State Review, Issue 11, Summer/Fall 2019, cover
The Mighty Line, Issue 8, August 2019, cover and interior
AWARDS/GRANTS
2019, 2020, Overlea ArtsFest, Best in Show
2019, Overlea ArtsFest, People's Choice Award