George Condo United States, b. 1957

Born in 1957, George Condo's work has influenced a whole generation of artists. He attended the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, where he studied art history and music theory. He moved to Boston after two years and worked in a silkscreen shop, later joining a band called The Girls with abstract painter Mark Dagley. While in the band, Condo met Jean-Michel Basquiat, prompting Condo to move to New York and seriously pursue a career as an artist. 

Condo’s first public exhibitions were held in East Village galleries between 1981 and 1983. It was also during this time that he worked in Andy Warhol's factory, applying gold dust to Warhol’s Myths series. In 1983, Condo moved to Los Angeles where he had his first solo exhibition. He later moved to Germany and worked with the Mulheimer Freiheit group. He met and forged a friendship with Keith Haring, producing several of his works during this period including Dancing to Miles which was included in the 1987 Whitney Biennial, and was completed in Haring’s studio.

One of Condo’s greatest collaborative partners was William S. Burroughs, having worked together on many paintings and sculptures between 1988 and 1996. They completed a series of writings and etchings titled Ghost of Chance, which was published by the Whitney Museum in 1991. 

Condo is also well-known for book and album cover art. He provided the cover art for author Jack Kerouac’s Book of Sketches, and did the album cover for rapper Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as well as album art for composer Danny Elfman. Condo has been prolifically exhibited by prestigious institutions worldwide such as at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, the Musée Maillol in Paris, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Staatliche Kunthstalle Baden-Baden in Germany, and the Albright-Knox Museum in Buffalo, NY.

Condo currently works and lives in New York.