Michael Moebius

(German, born 1968)

Michael Moebius is a contemporary German painter known for his illustrative portraits of celebrities blowing up a pieces of bubblegum. In his works, iconic figures such as Audrey Hepburn, The Beatles, Queen Elizabeth II, and Marilyn Monroe, are given fresh life through the artist’s simple addition of a colored bubble. Born in 1968 in Pirna, East Germany, he drew cartoons at young age but pursued a more stable career in engineering and architectural illustration as a young man. “As a child and growing up I would dearly hold on to the then-forbidden items,” he explained of his communist upbringing. “These really influenced me with their colors, designs, and scents.” After stumbling upon a book of Alberto Vargas’s pinup works during the mid-1990s, Moebius abruptly changed careers and began taking painting courses at the Academy of Arts in Dresden, where he steeped himself in the techniques of Andy Warhol and Titian. His works have gone on to be featured on the covers of Playboy, GQ, and Vogue. The artist currently lives and works in the United States.