Rex Ray: Art + Design

by Rex Ray, Douglas Coupland (Foreword), Steven Skov Holt (Contributor)

Rex Ray's highly collectible artwork is coveted in design as well as art circles. His color-bursting, curvaceous art graces the walls of high-design hotels, world-class museums, and hip restaurants, yet remains, as acclaimed author Douglas Coupland puts it in his foreword, "unslick, but superslick at the same time." Abstract and handcrafted, with a retro-futuristic mid-century feel, Rex Ray's meditations on fluid forms are a rare combination of sophistication and decorative appeal. The first monograph to survey his multi-faceted work in various media including paper cutouts, mixed-media collages, paintings, digital prints, and the highly admired graphic design and music packaging that launched his visual career Rex Ray is a veritable trove of his sleek yet playful aesthetic.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Design, Coffee Table Books, Art Design

160 pages, Hardcover

First published October 11, 2007

About the author

Rex Ray, a renowned graphic designer and fine artist, has a new retrospective book, Rex Ray: Art + Design, and a gift line available from Chronicle Books. His artwork has been exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, University Art Museum in Berkeley, San Jose Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, and elsewhere in the United States. He has gained an international reputation for his innovative graphic design work for many organizations, including Apple, DreamWorks, Sony Music, Rizzoli, Bill Graham Presents, Matador Records, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, and City Lights Books.

Reviews

[Wink · Rating 5 out of 5]

MERGING DESIGN AND FINE ART WITH RETRO-MOD FLAIR

Rex Ray has been hugely successful as a graphic artist, creating bold posters, album covers, and modern designs for bigwigs such as David Bowie, Linkin Park, Beck, Dreamworks, Apple, and even a very cool geometric bathing suit for Trina Turk. As a way to rebel against his commercial success and to disconnect from technology, he’s also a crafter who has gone through jags of obsessively creating three to ten marvelous paper collages every night.

But Ray doesn’t confine himself to the parameters of Graphic Designer or Collage Artist. Like graphic artists Murakami and Shag, Ray blurs the line between design, craft and art, crossing over into museums and galleries with oversized oil and acrylic paintings – some on wood, some on linen – of shape and color combinations that are both modern and retro, and always stunning.

Although Ray has been wowing the public for a couple of decades now, his work is new to me, so I was thrilled to come across this book, which celebrates his collages, fine art, and commercial design from 1997 to 2006. As a bonus, Douglas Coupland writes a captivating forward that made me want to read Generation X again. – Carla Sinclair

Rex Ray: Art + Design
by Rex Ray
Chronicle Books
2007, 160 pages, 8.5 x 10.5 x 0.9
$24 Buy a copy on Amazon

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my new favorite artist. His work is amazing.

[Rachel F · Rating 4 out of 5]

A visual feast!

[Ami · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous, and just the right blend of (mostly) artworks with enough discussion with and by the artist.

[Mills College Library]

760.092 R264a 2007

[Loren · Rating 5 out of 5]

interesting art! Like the colors.