Mark Kostabi
Encyclopedia
Early life
Mark Kostabi was born in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
on November 27, 1960 to Estonian immigrants Kaljo and Rita Kostabi. He was raised in Whittier, California
Whittier, California
Whittier is a city in Los Angeles County, California about southeast of Los Angeles. The city had a population of 85,331 at the 2010 census, up from 83,680 as of the 2000 census, and encompasses 14.7 square miles . Like nearby Montebello, the city constitutes part of the Gateway Cities...
and studied drawing and painting at California State University, Fullerton. In 1982 he moved to New York and by 1984 he became a prominent figure of the East Village
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
art scene, winning the "Proliferation Prize" from the East Village Eye for being in more art exhibitions than any other New York artist.
He writes an advice column for artists, "Ask Mark Kostabi," for Artnet.com.
Artwork
Kostabi has designed album covers for Guns 'N' Roses (Use Your IllusionUse Your Illusion
Use Your Illusion is a Guns N' Roses compilation album that is mixed from the Use Your Illusion I and II albums. It has only been released in the United States, consisting entirely of songs without profanity . However, not all songs without profanity were chosen to appear on this compilation...
) and The Ramones (¡Adios Amigos!
¡Adios Amigos!
¡Adiós Amigos! is the fourteenth and final studio album by the American punk rock band the Ramones. It was released on July 18, 1995 through Radioactive Records...
), Seether Holding Onto Strings Better Left to Fray
Holding Onto Strings Better Left to Fray
Holding Onto Strings Better Left to Fray is the fifth studio album by South African post-grunge/alternative metal band Seether. It was the first Seether album to have Troy McLawhorn as the lead guitarist. However, he departed from the band just before the album's release, to once again become the...
, Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott , aka "Little" Jimmy Scott, is an American jazz vocalist famous for his unusually high contralto voice which is due to Kallmann's syndrome, a very rare genetic condition. The condition stunted his growth at four feet eleven inches until, at age 37, he grew another 8 inches to the...
(Holding Back The Years), Glint
Glint
Glint is an American electronic rock band composed of chief songwriter Jase Blankfort , Mateus Tebaldi , and Philip Kuperberg...
(Sound in Silence), RK: Roman Klun (Kingsway), Psychotica (Espina) and numerous products including a Swatch
Swatch
Swatch is a brand name for a line of wrist watches from the Swatch Group, a Swiss conglomerate with vertical control of the production of Swiss watches and related products...
watch, Alessi vases, Rosenthal espresso cups, Ritzenhoff milk glasses, and a Giro d'Italia pink jersey.
Kostabi is also known for his many collaborations with other artists including Enzo Cucchi
Enzo Cucchi
Enzo Cucchi is an Italian painter. A native of Morro d'Alba, province of Ancona, he was a key member of the Italian Transavanguardia movement, along with fellow countrymen Francesco Clemente, Mimmo Paladino, Nicola De Maria, and Sandro Chia...
, Arman
Arman
Arman was a French-born American artist. Born Armand Pierre Fernandez in Nice, France, Arman is a painter who moved from using the objects as paintbrushes to using them as the painting itself...
, Howard Finster
Howard Finster
Howard Finster was an American artist and Baptist reverend from Georgia. He claimed to be inspired by God to spread the gospel through the environment of Paradise Garden and over 46,000 pieces of art. His creations overlap folk art, outsider art, naïve art, and visionary art...
, Tadanori Yokoo
Tadanori Yokoo
is a Japanese graphic designer, illustrator, printmaker and painter.Tadanori Yokoo, born in Nishiwaki, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, in 1936, is one of Japan's most successful and internationally recognized graphic designers and artists. He began his career as a stage designer for avant garde theatre in...
, Enrico Baj
Enrico Baj
Enrico Baj was an Italian artist and writer on art. Many of his works show an obsession with nuclear war. He created prints, sculptures but especially collage. He was close to the surrealist and dada movements, and was later associatied with CoBrA. As an author he has been described as a leading...
and Paul Kostabi
Paul Kostabi
Paul Indrek Kostabi is an American artist, musician, music producer and audio engineer. He is the brother of artist Mark Kostabi....
.
Retrospective exhibitions of Kostabi's paintings have been held at the Mitsukoshi Museum in Tokyo (1992) and the Art Museum of Estonia in Tallinn (1998). Kostabi's work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, the Guggenheim Museum
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
, the Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....
, the National Gallery in Washington D.C.
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC...
, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles is a contemporary art museum with three locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near Walt Disney Concert Hall...
the Corcoran Gallery of Art
Corcoran Gallery of Art
The Corcoran Gallery of Art is the largest privately supported cultural institution in Washington, DC. The museum's main focus is American art. The permanent collection includes works by Rembrandt, Eugène Delacroix, Edgar Degas, Thomas Gainsborough, John Singer Sargent, Claude Monet, Pablo...
, the Yale University Art Gallery
Yale University Art Gallery
The Yale University Art Gallery houses a significant and encyclopedic collection of art in several buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Although it embraces all cultures and periods, the Gallery possesses especially renowned collections of early Italian painting,...
the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, or the National Gallery of Modern Art , is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, dedicated to modern art....
and the Groninger Museum
Groninger Museum
The Groninger Museum is a museum of modern and contemporary art in Groningen, Netherlands.-Background:Although not as well known as other Dutch institutions of fine art, the Groninger Museum was founded in 1894...
in Holland.
His work was published on the cover of the book East Village '85 published by Pelham Press and his paintings were included prominently in numerous East Village shows in museums and galleries internationally. Matteo Editore published a book on Kostabi titled Mark Kostabi and the East Village scene 1983–1987 written by Baird Jones. During the mid 1980s he developed a media persona by publishing self-interviews which commented on the commodification
Commodification
Commodification is the transformation of goods, ideas, or other entities that may not normally be regarded as goods into a commodity....
of contemporary art. In 1986 Kostabi designed the Bloomigdales shopping bag. By 1987 his works were widely exhibited in New York galleries and throughout the United States, in Japan, Germany and Australia.
In 1988, inspiring extensive international press coverage, he founded Kostabi World, his large New York studio known for openly employing numerous painting assistants and idea people. In 1996 be began dividing his time between New York and Rome and consequently his work's already strong presence in the Italian art scene became much more prominent. The influential Italian critic and curator Achille Bonito Oliva, included Kostabi in several major exhibitions including at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte di Roma. The controversial critic, curator and TV personality, Vittorio Sgarbi, curated a 150 painting Kostabi show at the Chiostro del Bramante in Rome in 2006.
His permanent public works include a mural
Mural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
in Palazzo dei Priori in Arezzo, Italy, a large bronze sculpture in the central square of San Benedetto del Tronto
San Benedetto del Tronto
San Benedetto del Tronto is a city and comune in Marche, Italy, in the province of Ascoli Piceno. It lies on the Adriatic Sea. San Benedetto del Tronto is an important little town on the Marche coast, an active fishing port and one of the main seaside resorts on the central Adriatic coast.Located...
, Italy, and a bronze portrait of Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
in Velletri, Italy
Velletri
Velletri is an Italian town of 53,298 inhabitants. It is a comune in the province of Rome, on the Alban Hills, in Lazio - Italy. It is bounded by other communes of Rocca di Papa, Lariano, Cisterna di Latina, Artena, Aprilia, Nemi, Genzano di Roma, Lanuvio...
.
Music
Kostabi has performed music as a soloist and with other musicians including Ornette ColemanOrnette Coleman
Ornette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....
, Jerry Marotta
Jerry Marotta
Jerry Marotta is a drummer currently residing in Woodstock, New York. He is the brother of Rick Marotta, who is also a well-known drummer and composer....
, Tony Levin
Tony Levin
Tony Levin is an American progressive rock musician, specializing in bass guitar, Chapman stick and upright bass ....
, Tony Esposito, Stefano di Battista
Stefano di Battista
Stefano di Battista is an Italian jazz saxophonist who plays soprano and alto.He was born in Rome. He began playing at thirteen with friends and became interested in jazz on hearing Art Pepper. In Italy he received guidance from Massimo Urbani and by his twenties di Battista was performing in Paris...
, Olen Cesari, Aaron Comess, Richard Hammond, Amedeo Ariano, Marco Siniscalco, Stefano Nunzi, Puccio Panettieri, Pat Daugherty, Roman Klun and Paul Kostabi
Paul Kostabi
Paul Indrek Kostabi is an American artist, musician, music producer and audio engineer. He is the brother of artist Mark Kostabi....
. His compositions have also been performed independently by Rein Rannap
Rein Rannap
Rein Rannap is an Estonian composer and pianist.Since 1968, Rannap has given numerous public piano performances.Rannap has been active in management and composition for Ruja, Noor-Eesti and Hõim.- Pianist career :...
, Kristjan Järvi
Kristjan Järvi
Kristjan Järvi is an Estonian-American conductor. Järvi is the younger son of Neeme Järvi, and the brother of conductor Paavo Järvi and flutist Maarika Järvi....
, Maano Männi, Delilah Gutman and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
The Estonian National Symphony Orchestra is the leading orchestra in Estonia and is based in the capital Tallinn. Founded as the Estonian Radio Symphony Orchestra, it gave its first concert in a broadcast by Tallinn Radio on December 18, 1926...
. His CDs include I Did It Steinway, Songs For Sumera, New Alliance and "The Spectre of Modernism".
Media/cable/TV/film
Kostabi has been profiled on 60 Minutes, Eye to Eye with Connie ChungEye to Eye with Connie Chung
Eye to Eye With Connie Chung was a news show that aired on CBS from 1993 to 1995. The show, hosted by Connie Chung as a second project from her time as co-anchoring the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, she hosted and would often report, either on individual stories or doing interviews...
, A Current Affair, Nightwatch (with Charlie Rose), The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous is a television series that aired in syndication from 1984 to 1995. The show featured the extravagant lifestyles of wealthy entertainers, athletes and business moguls....
, Nonsolomoda, West 57th, CNN, MTV and numerous television programs throughout Europe and Japan. In print he has been featured in The New York Times, People, Vogue, Architectural Digest, The Face, Playboy, Forbes, New York Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph, Domus, Corriera Della Sera, Panorama, Artforum, Art in America, ARTnews, Flash Art, Arte, Arte In and Tema Celeste.
Kostabi is the subject of numerous documentary films, most notably Bottom Line: The Kostabi Phenomenon directed by Peter Bach, Con Artist directed by Michael Sladek and Jedermann directed by Paul Tschinkel. Kostabi has a prominent role in the Emmy award winning documentary The Art of Failure: Chuck Connelly Not for Sale directed by Jeff Stimmel. A new documentary, "Full Circle: The Kostabi Story", directed by Sabrina Digregorio for Atena Films, is in production and scheduled for release in late 2011.
Kostabi produces a weekly cable TV show, The Kostabi Show, where noted art critics and celebrities compete to title his paintings for cash awards. The Kostabi Show was previously known as both Name That Painting and Title This. Contestants on The Kostabi Show have included: Michel Gondry, Ornette Coleman, Suzanne Vega, Bela Fleck, Amos Poe, Glenn O'Brien, Glen Matlock, Tommy Ramone, Nicole Eisenman, Carlo McCormick, Walter Robinson, Gary Indiana, Victor Bockris, Dennis Oppenheim, Sylvia Miles, Taylor Mead, Robin Cembalest, Jaclyn Santos,Randy Jones, Molly Barnes and David Coggins.
Literature
- Mark Kostabi (self published), "Kostabi", 1980.
- Pelham Press and Mark Kostabi, "Upheaval", 1985, First edition 2,000 copies.
- Strother/Elwood Arts: "Office Suite" Mark Kostabi, 1986, ISBN: 0-940515-00-8, First edition 2,000 copies.
- Abbeville Press, "Sadness Because the Video Rental Store Was Closed & Other Stories", 1988, ISBN: 0-89659-800-4.
- Vanity Press, "Kostabi: The Early Years", 1990, ISBN: 0-9628366-0-5.
- Martin Lawrence Limited Editions, Inc., "Kostabi One Hundred +", 1992, ISBN: 0-929460-11-1.
- Journey Editions, "Conversations with Kostabi", 1996, ISBN: 1-885203-25-X.
- Martin Lawrence Limited Editions, Inc., "The Poetry of Silence", 1998, ISBN: 0-929460-12-X.
Others include: The Rhythm of Inspiration, Mark Kostabi and the East Village Scene 1983–1987 and Mark Kostabi in the 21st Century.
External links
- http://www.mkostabi.com/ Official Mark Kostabi website
- http://thekostabishow.com The Kostabi Show website
- http://conartistthemovie.com/ Con Artist website
- http://www.innsbruckrecords.com/theartists/markkostabi Innsbruck Records website, Mark Kostabi page
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI-CyojSEYA Jedermann movie trailer, Kostabi documentary
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQqizKMmYRY Ornette Coleman and Mark Kostabi live music performance, duet
- http://coagula.com/?page_id=78 Kostabi's Commode Confessional
- http://johnandjana.net/archive7/?p=5836 Interview with Michael Sladek, director of the Kostabi documentary: Con Artist
- http://vimeo.com/26535423 Trailer for documentary film, FULL CIRCLE: THE KOSTABI STORY, directed by Sabrina Digregorio.