Make Your Mark: The New Urban Artists – Book Review
By Tristan Manco
Published by Thames & Hudson ISBN 9780500292181
Review by Derek Brazell
All creative people come to their artwork with a certain approach. This might be broad and eclectic, or narrow and focused, and Tristan Manco’s book encourages both while championing diverse disciplines.
Celebrating artwork created physically, the book divides into three sections: Draw, Paint and Make, often with street art being a starting point for many of the featured artists (hence the book’s subtitle The New Urban Artists). This, therefore, sits very large scale work alongside work created in sketchbooks, on canvas and formed from materials such a hardboard or fabrics. There are recognisable skills apparent in the work here, from Stainer’s sensitive line drawings to the wax and paper collages of Gustavo Ortiz and Diana Beltran Herrera’s paper sculptures, but all serve as a reminder that art can be created from a multitude of materials.
It’s encouraging to see a book which embraces such an eclectic mix of international artists, and I found it quite inspiring – in terms of the hands-on approach and physicality of much of the artwork, and the curious and exploratory imaginations of the participants.
Make Your Mark will be great for dipping into for stimulating your own creativity – be it use of materials, new approaches to figures and characters or deciding to go large and aim for a free wall.
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