If you fancy coloring books and contemporary visual artwork, newly released book “Outside the Lines: An Artist’s Coloring Book for Giant Imaginations” is a one-stop gem.
Curated by Souris Hong-Porretta, the book is a softcover, hip/fun interactive delight. Many of the works were commissioned exclusively for the book. “Outside the Lines” allows the reader to engage directly with an artist’s work while also serving as a page-by-page romp through a landscape of unique perspectives.
Plump and loaded with pages, there seems to be no end to the coloring options. Pieces like “She Is a Natural” by AIKO, an acclaimed graffiti and street artist, is sure to ignite talk with Hello Kitty holding a smoking machine gun.
Some pieces inspire the colorist not to heed the lines (or feel limited to one type of coloring tool for that matter); others are oddly beautiful or even wacky with mesmerizing detail and patterns; some appear simpler and test the colorist’s imagination, such as Seuhng Kyoung Kim’s “To Be Titled” or Brion Nuda Rosch’s “Monument.”
The contemporary art lover will immediately recognize the works of Yuri Shimojo, Steven Harrington, Noreen Morioka, Keith Haring, Kenji Hirata, Gary Baseman, Jeni Yang, Kyotaro, Katsuo Design, Ryan McGinness, Keita Takahashi and Naomi Kazama, among others.
Parents may want to screen some of the artwork for young children but otherwise it’s an engaging learning tool for contemporary art and a collector’s item for the visual art lover.
A complete list of artists can be found at http://outsidethelinesbook.com.
–Alissa Hiraga