The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) welcomes the exhibit "Exquisite Creatures" for its Oregon debut, running from Oct. 5 through Feb. 17, 2020.

"Exquisite Creatures opens the door to a variety of complex topics by
highlighting nature's inherent beauty and design," said Nancy Stueber, OMSI

president and CEO in a press release to The Mountain Times. "This exhibit is a
stunning and insightful way to show that art, science and nature are very
much linked together and does a great job at making those topics accessible
to audiences of all ages."

Exquisite indeed, this awe-inspiring exhibition showcases the amazing gifts of
world-renowned artist, naturalist and New York Times bestselling author
Christopher Marley, who has made it his lifelong passion to reveal the obscure
beauty in nature and preserve specimens of insects and other life as three
dimensional art. Guests to the exhibit will experience the ancient connection
between art, nature and science, where Marley taps the natural world as his
medium.

Marley explained he was born with a passion for "monsters," so reptiles were
his earliest and most natural love.

"I spent the majority of my childhood outside looking for snakes and lizards
and raised a number of different species into adulthood," Marley said in an e-
mail to The Mountain Times. "Thankfully my parents were very tolerant of my
reptilian pursuits."

When traveling and living in Asia and South America, Marley developed his
passion for insects. As a young man, Marley had pursued a career in fashion
while studying art and design, and it was on a fabric sourcing trip in Bangkok
that he found himself exploring a night market, coming across a group of
disabled locals selling cheap frames crammed with the "craziest beetles I'd
ever seen." Marley was enthralled with being able to examine the huge insects
up close.

Later, while working in Cape Town, South Africa, Marley was really moved by
how conscientious residents were about incorporating the natural world into
their designs and homes. After returning to Los Angeles, Marley was
determined to create a living space for himself that was an homage to nature.
Marley possesses one single beetle from the Mount Hood area in his entire
exhibit of thousands of specimens, caught by his son, which is included in the
largest insect mosaic he has ever made.

"There is so much beauty all around the Northwest, but as my area of
expertise has historically been the tropics, I am only now really starting to
discover some of the beauty in my own back yard and am absolutely loving
it," Marley said. "The rock hounding and fossil collecting here is particularly
wonderful."

Raised in the Pacific Northwest, and growing up as a self-described “OMSI
kid,” Marley portrayed his field trips in grade school as absolute highlights,
and no trip to the zoo was ever complete without also spending hours across
the parking lot in OMSI.

Although Marley has been exhibiting all over the world in over 500 galleries
and special exhibits for two decades now, he said he had very few
opportunities to do so in Oregon.

"To be able to finally come home and exhibit in the very place where my love
affair with nature and science began is absolutely thrilling," Marley said. "I'm
so looking forward to it."

All of the organisms used in Marley's work are either reclaimed (in the case of
vertebrates) or sustainably obtained (in the case of insects), using a
worldwide network of people and institutions that share his passion for nature,
and frequently offers an alternative to ranching or farming for often
impoverished people with few options for sustenance other than working the
land.

OMSI is located at 1945 SE Water Avenue, Portland, 503-797-4000.
Information available online regarding exhibit hours and admission prices can
be found at the museum’s website, Omsi.edu.