Winter 2025
Keep it simple [EXTRACT]
Lost Ordinary Magic
Written and designed by Rob Lowe aka Supermundane Sphere, £14.99 Reviewed by Mark Sinclair
Rob Lowe, the artist, illustrator and writer who works under the name Supermundane, tries to lead a simple life. In recent years, his work has also taken on a more straightforward direction, employing largely ‘circles, squares, right angle and 45-degree lines’ for clients as varied as the UEFA Champions League, Pulp journal and Tooting Bec Lido. Lowe’s art – the personal work he sells as colourful prints and other handmade items – has followed a similar path towards geometric immediacy and simplicity. With writing now part of his practice, this first book is a natural outcome.
Lowe previously self-published Lost Ordinary Magic as a smaller book and, in this new edition for Sphere, he has expanded the subjects he covers to 68 short texts, each partnered with a line drawing (the title comes from a sentence found in a 1966 novel by Leonard Cohen). The book opens with an introduction to Lowe’s way of thinking and looking: ‘For many years he thought that everyone saw the world in the same way he did, until one day, it was revealed to him they didn’t.’
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Mark Sinclair,
Read the full version in Eye no. 107 vol. 27, 2025

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