Lori Nix

It's been a while since I profiled an artist whose work I enjoy. I keep a list of artists and always want to share good art. And Lori Nix's work is beyond good. It's downright incredible.

Lori is a Kansas born artist who creates miniature dioramas and then photographs them. In many ways she's a double artist. First is the building of her subjects, wallpapering tiny walls, constructing tiny chairs, sculpting miniature trees. She's a craftsman and a sculptor. But after all the hard work of building is done, then she has to light and photograph the scenes. It has to take a lot of patience because each scene is perfect right down to the last detail. Lori says that it takes about 7 months to build a scene and 2 or 3 weeks to shoot it properly.

Lori has her studio set up in Brooklyn. Her most recent exhibit is called The City, which focuses on what will happen after cities are abandoned by humans. It was her image of the library (seen below) which first caught my attention. The images are all about the decay and destruction of the man-made world mixed with Nature's capacity for producing life. I find them beautiful and a bit disturbing.

Nix has a number of different themes, like Unnatural History (Great Plains seen below) which gives a museum curators view of history and nature. It's all about how they create dioramas and displays. I love Nix's use of black and white which makes them seem like old museum pictures.

I simply had to share Lori Nix's art. I'm in awe of her photography but I'm even more in awe of her diorama building skills. I want to explore her little worlds. Each is so filled with beautiful details. They are nearly perfect.