Idyllic not natural for Murphy

Mary Voelz Chandler

Published May 30, 2008 at 3 p.m.

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Photos By Matt McClain / The Rocky

Artist Lauri Lynnxe Murphy reconfigured "bargain" forms from a taxidermy operation to create her menagerie of mutant animals.

Detail of Murphy's Event Horizon, along a wall of Plus Gallery.

Lauri Lynnxe Murphy has never been one to dabble in landscapes.

There has been fiber work that turns stuffed animals into a coat in order to touch on childhood fears harbored by even the strongest adult.

. . . Or small paintings arranged in grids, each providing a chapter in a larger narrative.

. . . Or a series of found-object works that included films from an MRI after a car accident.

But for the show "Unnatural," opening today at Plus Gallery, Murphy presents a look at two aspects of the natural world. First, a horizon line of more than 50 small, lozenge-like paintings on resin or plaster that suggest a streaming urban landscape. Also: a menagerie of sculptures that depict animals dramatically altered by human interference.

"We're creating these genetic mutations, and we're not really sure what that's going to do," said Murphy, standing in her new studio by a table that held a score of the tiny paintings.

"I've been dogging on landscapes, because everyone's done that. People thought I was being a snot. But they're so idyllic."

That's one word that won't get tossed around in reference to "Unnatural," Murphy's first show since she hung up her hat as a landlord and arts entrepreneur. "When I think about a landscape, I think about how you see it in a train or in a car, snippets here and there," said Murphy.

The 42-year-old helped found the former co-op ILK after graduating from Metropolitan State College in 1996. Over the years, she has shown at area galleries, but also opened a gallery and boutique - Capsule and Pod, respectively - in the old ILK space on Santa Fe Drive.

When a building came open next door, she turned it into an events center and work space for silkscreening.

The recent sale of the Capsule Events Center property and its imminent demolition meant the end of that business and the need to secure another studio, which she found near the Cole neighborhood. It also led Murphy back to where she now wants to be: an artist.

"With Capsule, my work was constantly interrupted," she said, standing in the 3,000-square-foot former commercial garage, filled with areas devoted to working in fiber, painting and modeling fiberglass. "I never finished stuff. I am so much happier."

Her "snippets" of landscape, the elongated ovals arranged in layers along one wall, will feature everything from embedded objects to maps and aerial "views" of a tangle of suburban cul de sacs.

Across the gallery from that suggestion of the land will be Murphy's conception of genetic experimentation gone awry, creatures such as Diplocephaloptus Album #147693, a deer-head trophy with a twist. This animal, in fiberglass covered in shiny white automotive paint and black flocking, has two muzzles separated by a field of a dozen eyes; its antlers are strung with strands of giant pearls.

Each creature mixes appealing and appalling. The intent recalls Denver sculptor Carley Warren's series of containers last year at Artyard that addressed the problematic aspects of genetically modified crops. It's a look into the future and the unknown.

"The question is, how far can you push it and still keep the aesthetic," Murphy said. "We show nature as this bright, shiny thing, package it up and sell it to the American public. It should be disturbing, but I'm also trying to make it beautiful." She laughed. "That's what we do in America."

Murphy says she's not part of the new "green" machine being plumbed by those promoting everything from cleanser to clothing.

"People can say 'You're jumping on the bandwagon,' but it's been a concern of mine for a long time. This is my comment on that very bandwagon."

In the process of making the new work, Murphy has investigated less-toxic modeling materials and water-based paints. She bought "bargain" forms from a taxidermy operation and cut and reconfigured them to mold a little zoo of horrors.

"I dreamed this entire body of work. I was thinking of these animals on the landscape. I must have awakened three times that night and made sketches. "

Chandlerm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2677

Unnatural

* What: New conceptual landscapes and sculptural work by Lauri Lynnxe Murphy; with "Watershed," large works on paper, and aluminum panels, by Kate Petley, and "Colorband Series: Espana," abstract paintings by Tim Jag

* When and where: Opens today (reception, 6 to 9 p.m. Friday), through July 12; Plus Gallery, 2350 Lawrence St.

* Information: 303-296-0927; plusgallery.com

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