White Cloud Worlds

PRESS RELEASE

An Anthology of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artwork from Aotearoa New Zealand

WHITE CLOUD WORLDS Edited by Paul Tobin

Foreword by Guillermo Del Toro, Introduction by Richard Taylor

NZ RRP $79.99 HARDBACK | PUBLISHED EARLY NOVEMBER 2010 | HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS

'. . . images to get lost in . . . to contemplate and speculate about . . malleable and ever-changing, like shape-shifting clouds in alien sky . . images to dream by.'

- Guillermo Del Toro [cid:image001.jpg@01CB6BEB.8AB9A560] The success of Peter Jackson's multi-award winning the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy played a significant role in igniting local artists' imaginations and elevating the genre of fantasy art to a new level in New Zealand. This project and others like it have opened the doors for New Zealand's creative industries and our highly talented artists to demonstrate their creative excellence internationally.

Many of these artists have been quietly and successfully working with some of the most recognisable international multi-media projects of the last few years. They are designers behind some of the biggest movies of the last decade, including the Narnia films, Avatar, District 9, King Kong and Lord of the Rings. Their illustrations and designs have been featured in the gaming industries for such world-leading clients as 'Wizards of the Coast', Blizzard's ' World of Warcraft' and graced the pages of Dark Horse Comics.

But who are these hugely talented artists? In the stunning new book, White Cloud Worlds, Weta Workshop senior designer, Paul Tobin collects together an anthology comprising 27 established and emerging artists who have chosen to make New Zealand their home. The artists are profiled with a selection of their own art accompanied by text written in their own unique voice, sharing their origins, inspirations and a rare glimpse into how they work.

Artists such as Jeremy Bennett whose conceptual artistry of Mordor evoke a land that is instantly recognizable; Greg Broadmore creator of the infamous "steam-punk" inventor Dr Grordbort and his dazzling array of lethal Rayguns; Ben Stenbeck, a comic book artist now illustrating Mike Mignola's legendary Hellboy graphic novels; Sacha Lees whose meticulously beautiful oil paintings take inspiration from the old Flemish Masters; David Meng, a sculptor whose enigmatic creatures are both sublime and menacing and recently exhibited in Shanghai; and Paul Tobin himself whose entries for this book evoke an exotic long-lost Atlantis.

As Richard Taylor sums up in his introduction to the book, 'it requires quite a unique combination of skills to be able to close one's eyes, shutting out the world in which we live and everything familiar, and to conceive of an entirely new world with never-before-seen continents, cultures and creatures, and then hold that image as one's eyes open again and recreate it as a dynamic and compelling illustrations . . . This is the work of the fantasy artist.'

White Cloud Worlds also includes written contributions from some of the world's most celebrated leaders in the field of science fiction and fantasy art, such as Guillermo Del Toro, Alan Lee and John Howe.

A limited slipcase edition of White Cloud Worlds will be published simultaneously. Each edition comes with a signed limited edition print from one of the artists.

An exhibition of the same name will open at The New Dowse Gallery in Wellington on 11 December 2010. This exhibition will feature original artwork from the artists profiled in the book. It will run until mid March 2011.

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