James Rizz — Pop Art
James Rizzi (October 5, 1950 — December 26, 2011) was an American pop artist who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.James Rizzi is a US American Pop Artist, graduated from University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. He came up with the idea of 3D multiples now mostly associated with his name when, having taken classes in painting, printmaking and sculpturing, he had to hand in grade work for all three subjects, but only had time for doing one. So he created an etching, printed it twice, handcolored it, and mounted parts of the one print on top of the other, using wire as a means of adding depth. Having received good grades from all three teachers, he stuck with the idea and developed it further.He lived with Baybi Day an actress from 1971- 1979. Later, he married Gaby Hamill, a fashion designer, they shortly after divorced. James Rizzi never had any children of his own, but has two nieces Jennifer Fishman and Laura Rizzi and one nephew Brian Rizzi who is also his godson. Finally a goddaughter Georgia Rae Pai Foster, daughter of Emrie Brooke Foster.
Rizzi was most famous for his 3D artwork, “especially the large, elaborate prints and teeming anthropomorphic cityscapes. His merry maximalism and delight in delirious detail and elaborate minutiae created a true art brand, a trademark style as recognizable as any in the world.”Late in life, he returned to painting. His “latest paintings combine his Picasso meets Hanna-Barbera drawing style with an increasingly chromatic palette and a complex graphic structure that simultaneously evokes cubism and the most sophisticated Amerindian friezes
