Judging Art By Its Cover. The Book Sculptures Of Mike Stilkey.

Los Angeles based artist Mike Stilkey's wall mountable book sculptures are stacked books whose spines and covers are painted with acrylics and colored pencil to form one image. His elongated forms of humans and animals with thin features are both simultaneously ghoulish and beautiful. And his style is clearly reminiscent of late German expressionism.


above: Dog Playing Dead, 2008, ink, colored pencil and acrylic on books, 26 x 10.5 x 6 inches

Take a look at his wonderful book sculptures (all the images below are composites of individual sculptures by If It's Hip, It's Here):











The following images are from his show solo "Words Fail Me" at David B. Smith Gallery in Denver, last September. Images courtesy of Daily du Jour:





You can purchase some of the above book sculptures at the following galleries:

BLK/MRKT Editions
David B. Smith Gallery
Gilman Contemporary

The artist at work:

Artist's Bio:
b. 1975 in Los Angeles, CA

Los Angeles native Mike Stilkey has always been attracted to painting and drawing not only on vintage paper, record covers and book pages, but on the books themselves. Using a mix of ink, colored pencil, paint and lacquer, Stilkey depicts a melancholic and at times a whimsical cast of characters inhabiting ambiguous spaces and narratives of fantasy and fairy tales. A lingering sense of loss and longing hints at emotional depth and draws the viewer into their introspective thrall with a mixture of capricious poetry, wit, and mystery. His work is reminiscent of Weimar-era German expressionism and his style has been described by some as capturing features of artists ranging from Edward Gorey to Egon Schiele.

His more recent work has been shown at Kinsey/DesForges Gallery in Culver City, CA, David B. Smith Gallery in Denver, CO, Gilman Contemporary Gallery, Ketchum, ID, and Rice University Gallery, Houston, TX.

Visit the artist's site here.


Fecal face has a great interview and visit to the artist's studio with tons more pics. Check it out here.

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Write by: Arek - Monday, December 21, 2009