‘Never Judge…?’

I’ll be part of the following group show at Stolen Space gallery in London 03.12.10 – 23.12.10 . A group show aiming to celebrate the art of the book cover. We were asked to create a book cover for a novel of our choice. I picked Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Vernes (first published in 1870).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Never Judge…?’

A Group Exhibition In Association with Penguin Books
03.12.10 – 23.12.10
Never judge a book by the cover. 

The age old proverb is easier said than done, when choosing a read who can’t be swayed by good cover art, the cover after all has the job of explaining thousands of words in an instant. Think of the classic covers that grace the jackets of thousands of books and the names of the truly great artists that have put their artwork to novels, creating iconic classic covers for these classic books, but is the book cover dying?  With the advent of the iPad it’s now questionable how long the printed novel and its cover will be around, just like the album cover, it’ll be resigned to a thumbnail in iTunes.

StolenSpace in association with Penguin plan to celebrate the art of the book cover with a show titled ‘ Never Judge? this December.

The broad and varied spectrum of artists were inviting to paint, print, etch, sculpt, photograph, whatever their medium, whatever their style… create a book cover for a novel of their choice,  a book that has inspired them, a book that has had a profound impact on them or a book that they remember fondly as a child … all that we asked was that they create their original artwork to the traditional format and size of a Penguin book 198mm (h) x 129mm (w)

For this exhibition ‘Never Judge?’ we will be exhibiting these artworks and fill the gallery with original book covers from our favourite artists from around the world. As well as originals we will be producing limited edition prints of a selection of the artwork. The show promises to be a visual feast and working in conjunction with Penguin and their upcoming Penguin Essentials project the show will be a guaranteed block buster.

ENTREMONDE cover art

I did the cover art for the French version of ‘InterWorld’, a fantasy and science fiction novel written by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves and published in France by Au Diable Vauvert. The book is titled ‘ENTREMONDE’ and is out since Thursday. It is about teenager Joey Harker who, together with a group of other Joeys from different Earths in other parallel universes, try to stop the two forces of magic and science from taking over all of the earths in different universes.

COVER VERSION Sheffield (UK), Sept 10

I’ll be part of the COVER VERSION show curated by Pete McKee at A Month Of Sundays Gallery in Sheffield (UK) in September. We had to redesign covers of one of our favorite LP of choice.

I chose Cymande (1972), one of my biggest musical crushes (see original cover below) for which I recreated the original visual elements – a dove perched on top of a man’s head, guarding him with it’s wings, only this time, it’s painted in my own decorative style.

You may have never heard of Cymande, but if like me, you grew up listening to hip-hop – you will definitely know their music. They have been sampled by everyone from De La Soul and the Fugees, to Kool Herc, Master Ace, MC Solar, Grandmaster Flash, and the Ruthless Rap Assassins. Cymande were a British electric funk band who formed in London in 1971.During their short lived career, they toured the US after the release of their self titled LP in 1972 and sadly disbanded in 1974.

The band was composed of west Indian musicians who were self declared Rastafarian. Their music incorporates omnipresent Nyabinghi rhythms, which consist in a warm syncopated heartbeat added to a mix of jazz, funk, calypso, soul and rock. The name Cymande (pronounced ‘Sah-mahn-day’) was inspired from a calypso word for Dove, the universal symbol of peace and love, which their lyrics are all about.

Check out the original version:

Here is my version: