George Condo American, b. 1957

George Condo was born in 1957 in Concord, New Hampshire, and became a seminal figure in contemporary American art. Best known for his vivid and at times grotesque portraits, Condo's oeuvre includes painting, drawing, sculpture, and printmaking.

Condo studied Art History and Music Theory at the University of Massachusetts Lowell but left in 1978 to pursue his artistic career in Boston and then New York. Shortly after the beginning of the 1980s, he was already living in New York and deeply involved with the New York art scene, having combined projects with such leading artists as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring.

Most unique of all, however, is Condo's style, which he refers to as "Artificial Realism." It takes classical techniques and blends them with a modern flair, somewhat reminiscent of both Picasso and the Old Masters. Much of his work has to do with the human psyche, which he expresses through complex emotions, using such devices as distorted figures and exaggerated facial features.

He moved to Paris in 1985, where he continued further elaborating his special aesthetic; meanwhile, a number of his shows opened all over Europe. He returned to the United States in the early 1990s and continued to attract critical acclaim after exposing at major institutions such as New York's New Museum and London's Hayward Gallery.

Today, the works of Condo are celebrated at the level of originality and psychological profundity, ranking him as a leading figure in the contemporary art world.