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Akufen Maud Vantours Spencer Lowell Johannes Leonardo Exhibit
September/October 2018 Twenty-Four Dollars commarts.com
MAUD VANTOURS BY YOLANDA ZAPPATERRA
Every surface is covered with eye-popping textures, patterns and forms. There are meticulous 2-D cutouts. Huge pieces comprised of tiny overlapping triangles in every conceivable color. Contoured spiral collages that look like explosions of rainbows. Five-foot-high totem poles whose ribbons of bright multicolored layers call to mind giant Chinese lanterns. And a pink, purple and turquoise abstract piece featuring hundreds of different-sized hexagonal layers built up to look like a door grille. Almost all these pieces are exclusively the work of a craftswoman who went to art school because she liked to draw from an early age. “I was really good at it, and my goal was to find a job where I could do it all day long,” Vantours says. She recalls how skilled her mother was with fabric and patchwork quilting, and her father building her a little wooden cabin in their family home. “While not artists, they were definitely makers, and creative, which I think is what pushed me into the art world,” she says. Once she got to the Duperré School of Applied Arts in Paris, via textile design and with the help of a teaching ethos rooted less in technical knowledge and more “in
helping us find our strengths and encouraging us to find our own ways of expressing ourselves,” Vantours soon began working with paper. “Why paper? Actually, I have no idea! I think it was unconscious—from the very start at college, it just felt natural to me to use paper,” she says. “Transforming it into something extraordinary by adding volume, patterns and light to it is something I love. And, of course, its versatility, qualities, colors, weights and accessibility allow for endless possibilities.” She began by making wallpaper—“not just printing, but using cutting and other techniques; experimenting and playing so that I knew the strengths and possibilities of the materials, and how to use them,” she says. These early projects received great feedback from not only her college tutors, but also brands. In January 2010, at the prestigious trade fair MAISON&OBJET, her work proved so popular that she won the young artist award and found her first client, Musée de La Poste, making the leap from wallpaper to paper art. Projects for Cartier and Lancôme soon followed. To date, less than ten years after graduating from college, Vantours has worked with adidas, Lancôme, Christian Louboutin and TAG Heuer; the fashion houses Giorgio Armani, Issey Miyake and Yves Saint Laurent; and the major French cultural institutions Cité de l’Architecture & du Patrimoine and Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie. By painstakingly shaping, cutting, layering and folding exquisite 3-D creations, she has provided the basis for ad campaigns, store displays, packaging, T-shirt designs and more. Standouts include her poppies for Kenzo’s Flowers by Kenzo perfume. A sumptuous Christmas feast laid out for Moët
Right: “Triangles is a personal artwork. I folded loads of differently colored pieces of paper to create a giant gradient. This artwork was more about technique—how to use hundreds of folded pieces of paper and connect them together with color. The goal of this artwork was to create a giant color gradient. Colors guide me; I never know what will be the result.” 22
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© Maud Vantours
E
lla Fitzgerald may have loved it, but on this early spring day in the 20th arrondissement, the leaden gray sky throws down sheets of rain that strip the workaday area of all color and light, making Paris distinctly unloveable. Fortunately for me, I’m outside the studio of award-winning French illustrator, designer and art director Maud Vantours. Stepping into her large workspace is like going from Dorothy’s monochrome Kansas to Technicolor Oz, with a smattering of psychedelic landscapes reminiscent of 1960s album covers thrown in.
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INTEGRATED BRANDING PROGRAMS 1 (series) David Nguyen, design director Karin Soukup, creative director Matt Luckhurst, chief creative officer Kris Wong, animator Shea Jackson, producer COLLINS (San Francisco, CA), design firm Exploratorium, client “The Exploratorium is a public learning laboratory in San Francisco that invites visitors to explore the world and their own perception through hands-on science and art. COLLINS was invited to reimagine After Dark, its popular, adults-only Thursday night event series. Drawing from research done in the Exploratorium’s remarkable archives, the campaign leverages ideas of altered perception through op-art influences and thought-provoking language. The work upends expectations, asking viewers to look closer, question their perception and see for themselves. Both sophisticated and mind-bending, it sets the tone for the immersive, provocative experience of After Dark and the independent, critical thought it inspires.”
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ENVIRONMENTAL GRAPHICS 1 (series) Yiyang Hei/Jie Huang/Feifei Miu/Qiang Wang/Chaoqi Xian/Zhizhou Ye, graphic designers Qiang Wang, art director Yiyang Hei, creative director Zhijuan Huang, writer Guangyuan Zhao, video director Yiyang Hei/Jun Ma/Qiang Wang/Wenwen Wu, exhibit design SenseTeam (Shenzhen, China), design firm Antalis, client “We curated an art tour exhibition installation. Fragment became the unit of time. We set different exhibition themes and designed three forms of flow to integrate with the bookstore environment.”
2 (series) Adam Johnson, creative director Xtra Shiny (Adelaide, Australia), design firm Springfield Butchers, client “Naturally sourced materials and classic building techniques were combined to create a branded space that acknowledges the timeless nature of the local butcher. Featuring sandstone walls, reclaimed spotted gum timber, vintage Polish industrial lighting and custom metal-cast signage, the branded components are right at home with the accompanying space. The logo, signage, interior design and other branded elements were created by Xtra Shiny to work seamlessly as a whole.”
3 (series) Dave Currie, designer Joe Anderson, creative director KNOCK, inc. (Minneapolis, MN), design firm Handsome Cycles, client
© Shaobo Wang
“A mobile pop-up shop that’s equal parts utility and design, the Handsome Cycles container was a memorable large-scale execution built for the long haul. Making the trip from Minneapolis down to Miami, Florida, for an Art Basel appearance, Handsome got to interact with customers beyond delivery and better serve cyclists with an innovative experience. The container carried Handsome models, parts and apparel so the entire business could operate à la carte for any brand of rider. With a simple and bold design, the container was a welcoming statement inside and out.”
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FRESH RAMONA RING v
Rooted in her childhood love of drawing worlds where humans, flora and fauna interact, Ramona Ring illustrates lush scenery that readers can wander through. Her pastel-hued creations are perfect for clients seeking a touch of dreaminess and a dash of surrealism in their publications. Take the series about designer beds she created for ZEITmagazin, where she tucked each bed into a whimsical dreamscape. “My illustrations depict an emotional atmosphere through the colors and compositions rather than an idea that is right in your face,” she says. While Ring creates worlds on the printed page, she eagerly explores them in real life. “Whether it’s seeing the colorful visuals of India or wandering through the lushness of Alaska, traveling sparks my desire to create and to explore the diverse directions of my realms of creativity,” says Ring, who is currently based in Hamburg, Germany. What’s next for this globetrotting artist? “My next destination will likely be Panama.” ramonaring.com
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