Timeline

1958

Born in the USA

Paul Rousso is an American-born visual artist and innovator who was born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1958. He began his formal training at the Cleveland Institute of Art in Ohio, but found himself in New York City after an accident left him injured. Once in New York, Rousso joined an interior design team and found himself drawing plans for the home of Robert De Niro. Rousso finished his BFA in 1981 at the California College of Arts in Oakland before becoming a successful art director and illustrator for brands such as Revlon, Clairol, Condé Nast, and Bloomingdales, working in the advertising world on Madison Avenue. Since the early 1990’s, Rousso has worked full-time as an artist from his studio in Charlotte.

Rousso’s signature works are large-scale sculptures of everyday objects, using scale to emphasize wrappers and ephemera that might otherwise be overlooked. By confronting viewers with these whimsically massive objects, Rousso underscores their importance as reflections of our society. Rousso’s work is held in private collections across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and beyond, and numerous public projects of his appear across the United States. He has shown at Art New York, Art Palm Beach, and Art Miami. In September of 2021, Rousso's work will be included in a group exhibition at the Tamayo Museum in Mexico City.