ARTIST ALEX BEARD DEBUTS UNIQUE LINE OF “IMPOSSIBLE” PUZZLES Puzzles Can Be Rearranged Into New Shapes and Images

New York City – (August 25, 2008) -- Jigsaw puzzles are all the same, right? Hundreds of abstract, interlocking pieces fit together to produce a scene from nature or an image of napping kittens. Some puzzles have evolved to 3D versions and computer adaptations, but the end goal remains the same: to recreate the picture on the front of the box.

Artist Alex Beard has long wondered why that is the expected standard. Why can a puzzle only make one picture? In his line of work, the goal is creativity, curiosity and novelty. Couldn’t puzzles be innovative as well? With the introduction of Alex Beard Impossible Puzzles, Beard proves that by looking at the jigsaw puzzle with a new perspective, anything is possible.

Alex Beard Impossible Puzzles are based on four original works of art by Beard. However, the final result does not have to be the picture on the box cover. Each puzzle piece can be rearranged into a new composition, a new outline, a new image – a work of art of the puzzler’s very own.

“As a painter, I use shapes as the building blocks of my work,” says Beard, owner of the Alex Beard Studio. “It occurred to me that by focusing on each individual piece as its own shape, I could design a new kind of puzzle – one in which the pieces themselves are integral to the final composition.”

Because some shapes have common outlines, it appears there is more than one choice for what can fit. The pieces do not snap into each other, but settle beside one another instead, making the puzzle exponentially more challenging. While there is actually only one correct piece that combines with its neighbors to assemble the puzzle as intended, the pieces can be combined in infinite ways to create new puzzles and new shapes.

For example, the rooster creation on the right was made from the pieces of the Abstract puzzle on the left!

“When I saw the Impossible Puzzles, I knew we had to bring them to the market,” said Chip Voigt, President of Fundex Games, Ltd. which produces the puzzles. “They are fresh and original. They take puzzling to a new level of innovation and creation that is far from anything else in the marketplace.”

Beard has made a career out of thinking unconventionally. He opened his art gallery in New York’s SoHo neighborhood rather than in the Chelsea Gallery District. He housed his painting studio inside his gallery, encouraging passersby to ask him questions as he paints. A recent feature in Vanity Fair magazine acknowledged that, at only 37, he is “redefining the New York gallery scene.”

Influenced to think creatively from a young age by his uncle, noted photographer Peter Beard, Alex grew up among some of the world's most interesting and influential people — Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, and their Pop World cohorts were familiar faces in the Beard household.

After extensive travels which led him shark fishing in Panama, bush driving in Africa and stalking tigers in India, Alex spent ten years in New Orleans, where he owned a gallery in the French Quarter. Alex then returned to his Manhattan roots and opened the Alex Beard Studio in 2006.

“Art is a medium accessible to everyone,” says Beard. “I try to demystify the artistic process a bit by opening my studio to guests and encouraging questions and feedback. By creating my puzzles, I wanted to make art available in a different way to people from all walks of life, and hopefully open up a new world of creative thinking for them.”
Alex Beard Impossible Puzzles will be available by early October nationally at Barnes & Noble where they will be featured throughout the fall and holiday season and online at www.bn.com. The four titles are Fishery, Menagerie, Abstract and Audience. The 315-piece puzzles, which will retail for $14.95, are being produced by the Great American Puzzle Factory.

Please contact Stafford Scott at 504.491.4249 or stafford@skewedcommunications.com if you have any questions, or would like a puzzle sample for review. Also, attached please find images of each puzzle. In addition, please visit www.alexbeardstudio.com or www.alexbeardimpossiblepuzzles.com for further information.

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About Alex Beard
Manhattan native Alex Beard is a painter and writer who has emerged as one of his generation’s most creative and successful artists. After extensive travels across the world, Alex spent ten years in New Orleans, where he owned a gallery in the French Quarter. Alex then returned to his New York roots and opened the Alex Beard Studio in SoHo in 2006. Never one to rest on his laurels, Alex this year launched the Alex Beard Impossible Puzzles line. In addition, Alex’s work is on permanent display at Octavia Art Gallery in Uptown New Orleans.


About Great American Puzzle Factory
Great American Puzzle Factory is a division of Fundex Games, Ltd. and creates cutting-edge puzzle products including Alex Beard’s “Impossible Puzzles”, Clearly Puzzled™, Make ‘Em Move™ and licensed puzzles. Fundex Games is proud to be an industry leader in manufacturing and marketing innovative leisure time products for the entire family. We produce a wide range of games including worldwide best-seller Phase10®, multiple award-winning Alfredo’s Food Fight™ and all-time classic Gnip Gnop™. Our RecreAction Games line is the market leader in backyard and tailgate games that include Jarts™ and Bulls-Eye Washers™. Fundex produces licensed products with the world’s most powerful brands. Fundex also distributes Sybarit™ and world- renowned games from Gigamic. Based near Indianapolis, Fundex is “Where Fun Comes First”. For more information go to: www.fundexgames.com