Paul Rousso

Rousso heats and models plexiglass to create his hyper-realistic sculptures. With this technique, he creates three-dimensional works using everyday objects like banknotes or the pages of the New York Times. Creased money is the protagonist of his sculptures. The pieces of one American dollar banknote and other international currencies are extremely magnified to reach considerable dimensions and to be gloriously hung on the walls.

To his banknote sculpture he adds the manipulation of candy wrappers and magazine pages creating a creased element of enormous proportions. The artist tries to flatten the dimensions and elevate the flattened. By exaggerating the measures of his sculptures, rendered by a multiplicity of details, Rousso playfully manages to capture his viewer’s attention, who can then establish a direct contact with the paper, an element present in people’s everyday life.

Rousso confronts the consumerism of today’s society, transforming the products of this era into elements of art, expressing a personal judgment on the human condition. He investigates the era of paper that is slowly disappearing from everyday use. Texts, images, musical scores – the paper on which modern civilization has evolved – have been transformed into bits used in the binary computer system. With his works, he elevates the printed word to a monument.

He attended the Cleveland Institute of Art in Ohio. He studied classical art and he was trained under the influences of pop art that has strongly emerged throughout his work. His practical experience in visual art began as an art director and illustrator for Revlon, Clairol, Condé Nast and Bloomingdale. It was also included in a special project with the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte and as part of an interior design team for the renovation of Rober De Niro’s house.

Rousso’s works have been exhibited in galleries and museums including Atlanta, Charlotte, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Houston and Miami.