George Condo (b. 1957, Concord, NH) has occupied a central position in the landscape of American painting for nearly forty years. Throughout his career, he has remained loyal to his personal aesthetic, crafting a uniquely inventive, multifarious and skillfully executed oeuvre that never fails to shock and delight. He majored in music theory at the University of Massachusetts before studying art history. The influence of music is evident through Condo’s body of work. To this day, he approaches his paintings like a classical composer or jazz virtuoso. 


Drawing from old masters, Condo mutates and splices his subject matter to create a polyphonic style that is instantly recognizable.  In 2014 he explained his work, ‘as psychological cubism. Picasso painted a violin from four different perspectives at one moment. I do the same with psychological states.’ Condo came of age in 1980s New York, at a time when figurative painting was making a comeback. His friends included Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring; he also spent a brief stint assisting in Andy Warhol’s Factory. 


Condo’s visual language speaks to a postmodern experience of selfhood. His work encompasses the drama, scale and vibrance of abstract expressionism, the skill of old master portraiture, and the energy of American pop.