64 CHRONICLE BOOKS
San Francisco artist Rex Ray’s retro-futuristic abstracts are bursting with color and curve. Rex Ray Art + Design is the first monograph to span his acclaimed career in various media, including paper cutouts, mixed-media collages, paintings and digital prints. The graphic design (primarily music packaging) that launched Ray’s visual career—album covers for David Bowie; posters for Radiohead and Beck, among others—is also here in a treasure trove of alluring imagery.

As the noted fiction writer Douglas Coupland says in his foreword, “Rex’s work inhabits that small sliver of territory where art and design don’t quite overlap, but rather swap identities so quickly and fluidly that one is never sure which is which. His pieces function as luxury goods, but at the same time they’re art, and quite rigorous art at that.” Sara Schneider, design director at Chronicle Books, brought her passion to this project, which also includes ancillary gift items such as notecards and journals. “It was a dream relationship,” says Schneider. “Very open. Rex trusted my vision for packaging his work. For him to trust me was totally amazing. He’s so talented. I feel lucky to have had an opportunity to explore the range of an artist I really admire. It was a labor of love.” by Terry Lee Stone

Chronicle Books | Art Director, Designer: Sara Schneider | Artist: Rex Ray | Client: Chronicle Books | Contact: www.chroniclebooks.com