No illustrator surpasses Istvan Banyai at portraying the dream lives of today’s New York and Los Angeles hip urban style-setters. His repertoire of visual special effects, whether seen in magazines, books, or animated films, is perfectly suited to a pop culture in which anything—appearance, identity, status—can be morphed into its opposite. This first collection of Banyai’s memorable pictures is a tribute to this dazzlingly gifted illustrator, a transplanted Hungarian who sees America with fresh eyes—and whose art uniquely speaks for our time.
In the Banyai universe, reflections and shadows become alternate realities, faces are interchangeable, and sex is a game played with laptop and webcam. Even his popular children’s book illustrations consist of sequences that shift vertiginously from scene to scene. Banyai describes his art as “an organic combination of turn-of-the-century Viennese retro, interjected with American pop, some European absurdity added for flavor, served on a cartoon-style color palette . . . no social realism added.” That distinctive perspective informs every page of this striking book.
