BOOK DESCRIPTION

OTHERWORLDY: Optical Delusions and Small Realities illuminates the phenomenal renaissance of interest among artists worldwide in constructing small-scale, hand-built depictions of artifi cial environments, dioramas, and alternative realities, either as sculpture or as subjects for photography and video. The book features contemporary work by approximately 35 preeminent visual artists who have generated renewed interest in this art form: a diverse group of international practitioners, ranging from sculptors and painters to photographers and videographers. This fully illustrated catalogue will also feature artist biographies and artist statements, and includes a curatorial essay by exhibition curator David Revere McFadden that traces dioramas and visual illusions in the history of visual arts, with a critical analysis of the works in the exhibition.

To view movie on dioramas please click here.

TITLE:

OTHERWORLDLY: Optical Delusions and Small Realities

AUTHOR: David Revere McFadden,
Chief Curator, Museum of Arts and Design

KEY POINTS:
The curator taps into a current thread in contemporary art that cuts across genres. The catalog features amazing works that recreate miniature realities with obsessive detail.

SELLING AND MARKETING POINTS:
The Museum of Arts and Design took 2nd place in the category of Best Design Exhibition by the International Association of Art Critics/AICA-USA. David Revere McFadden is also the author of: Second Lives, Dead or Alive, Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting (now in its second printing), Pricked: Extreme Embroidery, Slash: Paper Under the Knife (now in its second printing). Linda Florio, Florio Design, has designed many books for David McFadden and the Museum of Arts and Design including the award-winning Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting. Her studio, in NYC, works extensively in the area of art and culture.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR / GRAPHIC DESIGNER:
David Revere McFadden is Chief Curator and Vice President for Programs and Collections at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. He served as Curator of Decorative Arts and Assistant Director for Collections and Research at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, from 1978 to 1995. For six years, he served as President of the International Council of Museums’ Decorative Arts and Design Committee. McFadden has organized more than 120 exhibitions on decorative arts, design, and craft, covering developments from the ancient world to the present day; has published more than 100 catalogues, essays, articles, and reviews; and has lectured extensively. McFadden has received the Presidential Design Award three times, and is a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France.

Book designer Linda Florio of Florio Design has more than 25 years of design experience working with museums and cultural organizations, including eight years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Recent awards include: Mohawk Paper Best of Category Award, How Magazine, AMA, and Print Magazine.