Marilla Palmer’s delicate compositions of flowers and leaves combine nature and theatrical embellishments; sequins, glitter and beads are all decadent components used to make nature her Soubrette. Palmer’s eight new works on paper and sculptures reflect her overall interest in combining natural elements with fabricated materials. Palmer’s faux botanical studies are derived directly from fallen shadows of handheld twigs and branches, and incorporate mushroom spores with thread, pressed leaves with holographic paper, and glitter with watercolor. The intricacy of Palmer’s work entices exploration and beguiles the viewer. Look close and the work reveals details of intense study that are faithfully copied but made to be, as Palmer says, “more gorgeous, more exciting.” It is what Mother Nature would create if she were casting a play. Marilla Palmer gilds the lily of nature in its perfection; delicate and ethereal, sensual and seditious, it is nature accompanied by flare.

Marilla Palmer lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and has had numerous exhibitions of her work in New York and Los Angeles. She received her B.A. from Philadelphia College of Art. A review of a New York exhibition in the New Yorker says Palmer “successfully amalgamates light-emitting diodes and bits of forest fungus.” Time Out New York said Palmer “sidesteps kitsch to create vivid and complex environment”; and the Village Voice described her work as “wistful rather than ornamental.”