Rift

by James Jean

Almost a decade into his astounding career, James Jean has emerged as one of contemporary art's most important voices. From sell-out gallery shows in New York City and crowded signings at Comic-Con to kudos from the fashion world for his work for Prada, Jean's richly detailed art has struck a chord with fans across the globe. Rift showcases a brand-new collection of art in an elegant accordion-book format. Inside, two haunting landscapes span the connected pagesfolded in a variety of ways, the pages reveal myriad images hidden within the larger paintings.

Genres: Art, Graphic Novels

18 pages, Hardcover

First published August 4, 2010

About the author

James Jean is a Taiwanese-American award winning artist and illustrator living in Los Angeles. He was born in Taiwan but was raised in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey. He was educated at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Upon graduating in 2001, he quickly became a cover artist for DC Comics, garnering seven Eisner awards, three consecutive Harvey awards, two gold medals and a silver from the Society of Illustrators of LA, and a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators of NY. He has also worked in advertising, and has contributed to many national and international publications. His clients include Time Magazine, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, ESPN, Atlantic Records, Target, Playboy, Knopf, Prada among others. He has also illustrated covers for the comic book series Fables and The Umbrella Academy, for which he has won six Eisner Awards for "Best Cover Artist".

James Jean currently has seven published works, all of which collect his illustrations and art.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Jean

Reviews

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More pictures at parkablogs.com)

Rift is an unique book, designed in an accordion-book format. The book is about the size of a palm and comes with a beautiful slipcase.

The book is created by James Jean, one of the very talented artists of our times. The art is haunting and beautiful, as you would expect.

When the covers are pulled apart, you get to see two pieces of art on a wide canvas, intersecting each other. To see each art piece on its own, you can collapse the sections belonging to the other piece. And there are gold paint painted on top of the actual print for selected elements, like the rain and ornaments. On the other side, you have the sketches displayed in the same format.

With its creative presentation, this book is a work of art for its construction and content.

[Wesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful book from Fables cover artist James Jean that is composed entirely of wordless illustrations. The book's panels are concertinaed together to form a continuous whole. Within this structure are interweaved two distinct fantastical landscapes - a seascape and a strange procession across a weird landscape. The book allows for the panels to be combined in different ways allowing the viewer to construct their own narrative.

Hard to describe but see the illustrative video below:

Rift video

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this little book because I loved the way it was put together. It is a small folding book, pictures in color on one side; black and white on the other; hard cover on each side; tucked into a cardboard sleeve when it is folded together. Pure genius design!

The scenes inside are beautiful -- waves crashing, herons dipping -- but also very strange. Too strange? There is not really a story here that I can find. I wish there were.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

What you cant see is the gold foil on the cover and on the accordion bind pages. This book is gorgeous. Depending on how you fold the book you will see different images match up. Beautiful color on one side and on the other side the line drawing.

[Andrée · Rating 4 out of 5]

A coming of age story with a twist.
Quite dark - the selfishness of adults is clearly laid out - from lazy to actively evil - all but a few are self centred ignorant easily led and have skewed judgmental attitudes i.e. the Preacher is a 'good man' anyone who opposes him is 'evil'
Reccommended

[Juliette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This delicate accordion book is stunningly beautiful and also a great way to collect art. Snag it before it goes out of print!

[Ruby · Rating 5 out of 5]

So clever and so gorgeous. Also kind of creepy. The book is built in such a way that depending on how you open and fold the pages over, you get different variations on the stories.