RIVER KUO - New Artworks Collection - Artist Book
River Kuo is a multidisciplinary artist based in Taipei, Taiwan. His drawings and paintings are prominent in the fashion industry of Taiwan - as well as his shop window installations. A self pro-claimed "pop artist and designer", Kuo provides a hint at his illustrative styling which links to the fashion industry and artists like Andy Warhol. These early links are severed once a large body of work is witnessed in his new book.
Kuo's style and mood are dramatic, from cutesy, colourful naive line drawings to dark portraits reminiscent of possessed children in asian horror films. His lines are minimal yet retain emotion and energy.
The publication itself is a work of art, with an unheard number of printing techniques, paper stocks, inserts and binding. The book contains fine art water colour papers, thin coloured bond papers, thick cardstocks, newsprint, vellum and even clear acetate inserts. These inserts have River's patterned floral motifs which can be removed and overlayed ontop other pages as an interactive feature.
The spine of the book has a beautiful textured glued finish. The finishing technique looks similar to a hardcover book which had the cover ripped off.
Braile, embossing, gold leaf and sewn in fabric are other interesting details that will be found when exploring the book.
The back of the book has information printed on to fabric tags which are sewn into the back cover, like the tag on a t-shirt.
I can't recommend this book enough to fans of River Kuo's art and to people who love to hold an original unique artbook in their hands.
Unfortunately the book may be hard to get a hold of as it is currently only for sale through a shop in Taiwan. There is some info below. You can also checkout the River Kuo Artist Zine / Book
*River Kuo Zine Available
書名 - RIVER KUO 發行人 - 趙慶論 發行 - JJ40嵥傑國際有限公司 ISBN - 978-957-41-7141-5 定價 - $1500元 語言 - 中/英/日 販售 - 誠品書店
作者 - RIVER KUO 製作統籌/裝楨設計 - 林小乙 文編 - 林佳賢 . 黃顗穎 文案 - 林佳賢 行銷企劃 - 黃顗穎 JJ40/02-2627-7758
Book title – RIVER KUO Publisher – JOHNNY JAN Publish - JJ40 International corp. ISBN - 978-957-41-7141-5 Language – Chinese / English / Japanese Where to buy – Eslite bookstore (TAIWAN) Pricing - $1500.-(NT)
Author – RIVER KUO Producer/designer – Xiao-yi Lin Editor – AD Lin / Christine Huang Copywriter – AD Lin Marketing – Christine Huang Contact - JJ40 International corp. Tel / 886-2-2627-7758
20100924 Taipei Taiwan