ALEX ECKMAN-LAWN 

THORN

solo exhibition

February 1st - March 1st, 2026

Opening Reception: First Friday, February 6th, 2026​

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Arch Enemy Arts presents THORN by renowned collage artist and illustrator Alex Eckman-Lawn. Based in Philadelphia, Alex’s work has been a staple in group shows since the gallery’s inception; we feel a kinship with his striking style of dark surrealism, and we are honored to exhibit his first solo feature with the gallery. Alex’s compositions are emotional and complex, delicately constructed with hand-cut paper, using everything from prints of his original paintings to old medical texts to create dimensionally layered distortions that plummet inward like catacombs or dark depths of the mind’s eye. 

 

“For this body of work, I used a mix of nature and architectural imagery, insects and plant life along with crumbling buildings and manmade barriers as a sort of visual vocabulary. You’ll see a specific spire, snakes, barbed wire, thorns, ruined buildings. The title, THORN, describes the show both visually and thematically in ways that I hope leaves room for people to bring their own experience to the work. For me, THORN is about the ways people try to protect themselves and how often this is completely misguided. This desperate need for safety creates imaginary enemies, isolation, and ruin. It's an excuse for people to enact staggering cruelty on each other, ultimately harming themselves in the process.” - Alex Eckman-Lawn

 

In twelve new original works, ranging in size and including Alex’s thickest, most layered piece to date (“Village”) plus a new print edition, Alex makes us think about the fragility of our inner and outer worlds. Hot reds offer intense contrast to muted grays, blues, and charcoal blacks. His figures, constructed from bits and pieces of gothic and classical antiquity, add something somber to the insidiousness. With sad strange beauty, Alex delicately fractures the compositional plane, showing the outside leaking in and the inside bleeding out, creating new forms at a time when all facades appear to be failing. Dark, foreboding, and deeply beautiful, THORN speaks to the grotesque and revealing worlds in which we try to hide. 

 

Alex Eckman-Lawn (b. 1984) graduated from University of the Arts in 2007 and has since exhibited widely around the world. Both his illustration and collage work have been published, appearing in comic books, on album covers, book covers, T-shirts, music videos, newspapers, and posters. He has been featured in The Age of Collage Vol. 3, with work reviewed by Hyperallergic, Hi-Fructose, and Beautiful Bizarre. Alex Eckman-Lawn began exhibiting with Arch Enemy Arts in 2014, appearing in forty group exhibitions to date, and THORN is his first solo feature with the gallery. 

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THORN will be on view from February 1st - March 1st, 2026
Sold works will begin to ship the week starting March 8th, unless other rush shipping arrangements have been made. 

Items marked with a red dot have already been sold.

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