Book Review: RE:INVENT by Magnus Rex Studio

Back in June, I posted about the Kickstarter campaign for the book RE:INVENT by Magnus Rex Studio. Well, the book is out already.

You can get it from Nucleus and Amazon.com.

This is an artbook inspired by comic and concept artist Francis Tsai, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2010. Despite his paralysis, he's still creating art. Some of the artworks in the book are created by him using eye tracking technology, and they are not just simple illustrations but look advanced and amazing.

Francis Tsai's condition has inspired a group of artists to create their own dream projects, instead of letting them just remain as ideas. This book is the result of those artists seeing their work through the end.

There isn't any fixed theme, but the ideas are interesting nevertheless. Derick Tsai's Mythika takes on eastern legends and myths in the style of Javanese Wayang shadow puppets. Angela Zhu has a few portraits and paintings that explore form or the formless. Stephan Chang has some sci-fi inspired pieces. There's also something on photography, by Christian De Castro. Ben Zhu who started Nucleus, the art galley and store, also has his artworks included. The last section is of course the story of Francis Tsai and the new artworks he has created.

Overall, a pretty nice compilation of works from all the artists featured. Each artist also talks about his inspiration regarding the pieces of work.

Derick Tsai

Derick Tsai

Derick Tsai

Christian De Castro

Stephan Chang

Francis Tsai

Ben Zhu

Francis Tsai

RE:INVENT is available at Nucleus and Amazon.com.