Ballistic Publishing's EXPOSÉ 10 in Review
Publication details:
- EXPOSÉ 10
- Publisher: Ballistic Publishing
- Publishing date: October 9, 2012
- Limited Edition: 978-1-921828-20-1
- Hard cover Edition: 978-1-921828-19-5
- Soft cover: 978-1-921828-18-8
- Pages: 288 (LE/HC/SC)
- Managing editor: Ronnie Gramazio
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Jim Burns, Grand Master EXPOSÉ 10 "Homuncularium"
"I hope that this enables me to remain fresh
and open-minded about 'directions' and I still promise myself every
day that I still have my best work in me"
-Jim Burns, EXPOSÉ 10
For ten years now, Ballistic Publishing has been releasing a yearly collection of the finest digital art submitted to them by artists from practically every continent on the face of the planet, and now with the publication of EXPOSÉ 10, Ballistic is celebrating a decade of sharing brilliant digital art with the public. EXPOSÉ 10 is their crowning achievement with more art, more artists and arguably the most comprehensive collection of digital art ever published.
With 288 pages, EXPOSÉ 10 is the largest EXPOSÉ book to date, featuring 548 images by 380 artists, and first time artists to EXPOSÉ total 239. These are record-breaking numbers for Ballistic. In addition, as a way of celebrating Ballistic's anniversary, editor Ronnie Gramazio decided to focus on the global aspect of the EXPOSÉ series. The only continent not represented in EXPOSÉ 10 is Antarctica.
Mr. Gramazio has also included a world map which pinpoints the country of origin of each artist. EXPOSÉ 10 features a 10-page "honor roll" of every artist who has appeared in any issue of EXPOSÉ, along with the number of the books they appeared in. One glance at the world map shows you just how much cultural diversity there is in EXPOSÉ 10.
Three example categories for digital art in EXPOSÉ 10
An advisory board and jury is selected every year to decide what digital art to include in each EXPOSÉ book. This year panelists included Syd Mead, Chris Perna, Stephan Matineiere, Chris Sloan, Leigh Van Der Byl, Brom and eight other renowned digital artists. Twenty artists were chosen for the EXPOSÉ 10 Master awards in categories such as matte painting, science fiction, portrait, architecture, fantasy, concept art, environment, steampunk and more. EXPOSÉ 10 does a superb job of laying out each artist's work along with their background/history.
This year's Grand Master award went to Jim Burns, who I'm proud to say led me to read more science fiction books than I otherwise would have, because his book cover designs enthralled me. He began as a professional artist in 1972 and has influenced an entire generation of digital artists with his imagination and unique sense of style. His autobiographical sketch at the beginning of EXPOSÉ 10 is revealing and makes you want to know more about this special person.
"Last Kiss" by Adam Martinakis, Greece
But my selections are entirely subjective and there are hundreds and hundreds of remarkable works of digital art in EXPOSÉ 10. Ballistic shapes each volume of EXPOSÉ to fit the type of entries submitted that year. This year they added a new category – Portrait (Illustration), due to the fact that there were so many entries in the Portrait category. I'm also delighted that they include categories for Abstract & Design and Whimsical, which are my favorites.
I can't say enough good things about EXPOSÉ 10. If you are at all interested in digital art, this is THE book to acquire for your library. EXPOSÉ 10 is filled with striking, evocative and beautifully crafted digital imagery by artists from all over the world. The care that went into color reproduction and book binding is obvious on every page.
"Intimacy" by Jianhua He, China
Ballistic is making EXPOSÉ 10 available in three flavors: Limited Edition (which comes with art print), Hardback, and Paperback editions. I received the paperback edition, and after a good deal of use in the last month, the binding is still flexible and tight. Publishing quality on the EXPOSÉ series of books is very high, so the books will last a very long time.
Head over to the beautiful Ballistic Publishing website where you can look through the entire book using their embedded reading application. Customers who purchase any edition of EXPOSÉ 10 will also get a free video download of artist Lua Hua walking though the creation of his fantasy artwork "Monkey King."
I congratulate Ballistic Publishing for a decade of publishing brilliant digital art. I'd also like to thank them for sending me EXPOSÉ 10 to review for renderosity.com.
For more info, please visit:
Ricky Grove [gToon], Staff Columnist with the Renderosity Front Page News. Ricky Grove is a bookstore clerk at the best bookstore in Los Angeles, the Iliad Bookshop. He's also an actor and machinima filmmaker. He lives with author, Lisa Morton, and three very individual cats. Ricky is into Hong Kong films, FPS shooters, experimental anything and reading, reading, reading. You can catch his blog here.
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September 24, 2012
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