Artist Watch: Yayoi Kusama

I wish I could have gone to Australia to see this exhibition (and maybe even partake in it!).  Yayoi Kusama (born 1929) created in installation at the Queensland Art Gallery in Australia that was a couple of "domestic-syle rooms" like a living room and kitchen.  But everything was painted white.  And once the exhibition opened, the children who visited the museum were given colored dot stickers to decorate the rooms!  How amazing is that?  Here are a few photos from the 'Obliteration Room' installation:

~Jess

Artist Watch: Vanishing Cultures Project

The Vanishing Cultures Project is a documentary project that is helping to create awareness of native tribes and preserve their way of life.  Taylor Weidman and Nina Wegner team up for half the year and go out to document indigenous tribes.  They have already finished their first project about Tibet in the Upper Mustang region.  You can purchase prints and a book about Tibet.  Right now they are working on documenting the pastoral herders in Mongolia.  Check out more about their project here: http://www.vcproject.org

What I really love about the project is not only the preservation aspect, but the photographs.  They are truly stunning.

~Jess

Artist Watch: Julie VonDerVellen

The internet is a brilliant thing, connecting all of visually.  I came across Julie VonDerVellen's work last year.  It really is amazing what one can do with paper.  VonDerVellen creates garments out of handmade paper (which is made out of recycled cotton clothing).  She says that "garments evoke memories; memories evoke garments" and she's right.  Her pieces are intricately woven and painstakingly put together to re-create garments.  The paper also has the story of the specific memory printed on it thus binding the memory and the garment together.  Check out more of her work here.

~ Jess

Matthew Featured in PBS's Off Book

Matthew is featured in the latest episode of "Off Book," a wonderful new PBS web series about non-traditional art forms. We enjoyed having the film crew visit the studio!

play video

Artist Watch: Shawn Sheehy

We always enjoy seeing what Chicago-based artist Shawn Sheehy is up to. He creates every part of these elegant artist books: the paper, illustrations, text, pop-ups and binding.

Shawn also offers excellent pop-up workshops all over the country. Check here to see if he'll be in your neck of the woods.

What's Popped Up: Sneak Peak at 2012

We're busy cooking up lots of new pop-up surprises here at the studio. Here's a sneak peak of what's coming in 2012.

Next summer look for these two new titles perfect for young pop-up fans:

Rumble! Roar! Dinosaurs!: A Prehistoric Pop-Up

by Matthew Reinhart

Robin Corey Books

A Princess Like Me: A Royal Pop-Up

by Matthew Reinhart

Robin Corey Books

And -- hold onto your helmet! -- look for our new Star Wars pop-up featuring all your favorite heroes and villains from the prequels. Here's a little teaser:

We hope you'll enjoy these books as much as we've enjoyed making them!

DIY: Pop-Up Wreath

Happy holidays from The Pop-Up Studio!

We have a pop-up you can share with someone special -- made by you! Just click here to get started on a pop-up wreath.

Need some inspiration? Try decorating with paper, glue, and crayons.

Shiny paper or glitter glue adds an extra holiday touch.

Enjoy!

Artist Watch: Kit Lau's Hong Kong Pop-Up

The other day we came across this fantastic pop-up book about Hong Kong by artist Kit Lau. His artwork is exciting and fun, and his pop ups capture the changing architecture of the city. He was inspired by his family's own history in the city.

Lau created this incredible pop-up version of the Great Wall of China for another book. Amazing!

You can read about this talented artist in an article published last year in Time Out Hong Kong.

We look forward to seeing more work from Kit Lau!

Barneys and Lady Gaga Pop-Up Invite

Recently Barneys New York and Lady Gaga collaborated and created Gaga's version of a holiday workshop within the Barney's store in NYC.  VIPs were invited to the opening of the holiday workshop with none other than pop-up invitations!  The pop-up invitations were created by Creative Director of Design Packaging, Evelio Mattos.  It's very exciting to see that people are pushing the envelope with pop-ups and using it outside of the usual book format.  To read more about the project and to see development sketches, click here.

~Jess

Pratt's Newest Engineers!

I would love to show off the final projects from the paper engineering course I'm currently teaching at Pratt Institute!  My students learned so much in their short time in the class and I'm really happy to say the I'm very proud of all of them!

 Here we have a great take on postmodern collage artwork re-created as 3-D pop ups!

Grrrrowl!  A very hungry pop tarts monster comes out to take what is rightfully his out of the toaster.

These are a collection of masks for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This is an album for Florence + The Machine.  The CD pops right up when you open the 2nd spread!

A very recognizable pop-up, this is for Apple and it's products.  Check out the iPod on the left-- you can turn the wheel and choose what music to listen too!

 A golden ticket and a lot of Wonka madness in this pop-up for Willy Wonka's factory.

Another pop-up with collage art work, this one we went deep sea diving!

 A great educational pop-up on saving water and waste reduction!

Here we see the NYC skyline where you can set the sun and turn the lights off of the Empire State Building!

Congrats to all of my students!  You all did a fantastic job!
~Jess

* We've been so busy in the studio these last few months that posting has fallen by the wayside.  Thank you all for being patient with us!

What's Popped Up: Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Award

We're thrilled to announce that Matthew Reinhart's Encyclopedia Mythologica: Gods and Heroes Pop-up has been given a Gold Seal Best Book Award by the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio. The testers at Oppenheim are parents, kids and educators, and we're honored by their praise: "It's just this type of book that can get a reluctant reader engaged!"

Thank you to the folks at Oppenheim!

You can pick up a copy of Matthew's book at your local bookstore or at amazon.com. Enjoy!

What’s Popped Up: Sam Ita's The Odyssey

Check out this amazing new pop-up book by our good friend and fellow paper engineer, Sam Ita. It’s the classic tale The Odyssey, presented in Sam’s unique, graphic-novel-meets-pop-up style. We especially enjoyed seeing Circe transform one of Odysseus’s men into a pig right in front of our eyes.

Look for it at your local bookstore and check out more of Sam's work at www.samita.us.