Disclaimer: a free copy of this book was provided by Tuttle Publishing for this review (all images are from the Tuttle Publishing website)
New Expressions in Origami Art is an absolutely beautiful coffee table book. You won’t find any origami instructions here. Instead you’ll find tons of amazing photos and information about 25 different featured origami artists from all around the world.
This is the perfect book to buy and leave lying around for your friends and relatives to find and page through. Especially if they think origami is just simple paper folding for kids.
I’d definitely say that your average person has no idea how complex and amazing origami can get and this book does an excellent job of communicating this.
The book begins with an introduction by Robert J. Lang (who’s name should definitely be recognizable to any origami enthusiast) and Meher McArthur.
After the introduction the book showcases it’s first artist, Joel Cooper. Joel Cooper is a master of tessellations and has designed a ton of amazing paper masks.
This section details Joel Cooper’s life, inspirations for his work, techniques and more. You’ll also find tons of amazing photos of his work of course too.
The next section is all about Erik and Martin Demaine and their beautiful curved origami shapes. They’re a father and son partnership.
Martin is a professional artist and Erik is a professor at MIT and one of the world’s leading experts on computational origami and origami mathematics.
Their work uses various mathematical algorithms to create some beautiful curved shapes.
The next section is all about Vietnamese artist Giang Dinh and emphasizes the simplicity and beauty of his designs.
Vincent Floderer, a French artist is the next one that’s featured along with lots of great photos of his models which have a delicate and organic style to them.
Tomoko Fuse is another well-known artist famous for geometric designs. The next section is all about her work.
The next section features an Israeli artist and activist known as Miri Golan. She believes that since politicians have failed at bringing peace to the Middle East it is up to artists to spread mutual respect, tolerance and peace.
She has some very interested work folded from materials such as Hebrew and Arabic newspapers and even holy books such as the Torah and the Koran.
Paul Jackson is the next featured artist and his section details his work and a bit of the philosophy behind origami.
Beth Johnson is next and her work has definitely been featured on this site before. This section details her work and her unique style which incorporates a lot of spirals and tessellation’s into her designs.
You definitely can’t have a book like this without touching on the work of Eric Joisel who sadly passed away in October 2010. The next section is all about his life and his work.
The next section details the work of Goran Konjevod who uses a lot of tessellation-like patterns to create all kinds of great organic-looking shapes.
Michael G. LaFosse and Richard L. Alexander are covered next and both of these names should definitely be recognizable to any origami fans out there.
This section details both of their lives, their Origamido studio and incredible animal designs.
Robert J. Lang has a chapter next which you’d expect because his work is amazing.
Sipho Mabona another famous artist who’s part South-African and Swiss which I didn’t know. He’s had his work featured in displays all over the world and has folded some giant models like an elephant that’s bigger than a human.
The next artist Mademoiselle Maurice I’d never heard of before and she puts together beautiful outdoor displays of origami on walls, staircases and other outdoor surfaces.
An artist named Linda Tomoko Mihara is featured next. She’s a Japanese American who makes a lot of Japanese inspired origami art.
Jun Mitani is next and he definitely has a unique style and uses computers to help him fold beautiful symmetrical shapes and forms.
The next section features Jeannine Mosely who folds paper versions of various fractal patterns as well as other really great geometric shapes.
Yuko Nishimura, a Japanese artist who folds beautiful and huge tessellation designs is next.
Another one of my favourite artists, Bernie Peyton is next. His section covers his beautiful animal origami as well as his environmental activism.
This is followed by another absolutely amazing artist from Vietnam called Hoang Then Quyet. Hoang Then Quyet definitely has one of the most beautiful styles I’ve seen and uses a lot of wet folding to create beautiful curved shapes in his models.
Matt Shlian is a paper engineer and he’s featured next. His work combines art and science with some beautiful results.
The next section is all about Richard Sweeney who creates giant beautiful curved shapes and displays.
The final chapter is all about Jiangmei Wu and her fantastic geometric displays, origami lamps and more.
The book is 192 pages, has a beautiful hard cover and is nice and big. It’s perfect for any coffee table.
The selection of the artists featured in this book is really good too. You have everything from paper engineers to environmental activists and all of their work is unique and stands out from the rest.
I also have to say that it was definitely pretty cool reading about several amazing artists who thanks to this site I’ve had the pleasure of talking to (at least a bit) over the Internet.
You won’t find any origami instructions here but instead you’ll find a beautiful book that’s perfect for showing off how far the art of origami has advanced to average people who don’t have much experience with paper folding.
I’d definitely recommend you pick up a copy of this and leave it out on your coffee table.
