Max Kauffman (United States)
b. 1981

Architecture factors heavily into my work. As a way to tell a story but also as the basis of things- the walls we form in our minds, the memory of a magic place from childhood, and recently to look at heritage. Using a mental and emotional map of places, people, and sometimes events I create images to the best of my recollection. They appear more as patterns than a concrete thing.

Best known for his outstanding post-apocalyptic folk tales, Max Kauffman is an artist who doesn’t fear taking risks or traveling the longer road to get to an idea for his work. Kauffman’s paintings shift deftly between abstraction and figuration by blurring the distinction between real and imagined, conscious and unconscious. The suggesting and exploding forms presented in his amazing body of work invite the observer’s own imaginative references and conjure the joyful mess of living. Max’s pieces encompass a sense of uncontrollable chaos and a folkloric approach to their subject matter. He investigates how we draw comfort from inanimate objects and habitats that we occupy, letting them shape us.

Kauffman was born in 1981 in Chicago and grew up in South Bend,IN. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics, with a minor in Anthropology from Arizona State University in 2004. He has participated in solo and group shows across the United States as well as Italy, Canada, Mexico, and Israel. His work has been featured in publications like Boom,Vice, Beautiful Decay, Its Nice That, Hi Fructose and Juxtapoz, to name a few.

He currently lives in Denver with his cat daughter, Lady Drew.

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Paul Rousso (United States)

Paul Rousso is an American-born visual artist and innovator. Educated at the California College of the Arts, his work is shown at galleries and art fairs around the globe.

A prodigious perfectionist, his technique has leapt into the future, as his vision and imagination merge to embrace new conceptual and physical technology the moment they appear on the horizon. The artist lives his context and vehemently pursues his objective.

Rousso relentlessly excels at his efforts to evolve as an artist who will put forth an enduring impact on subsequent generations with his life’s work, “Flat Depth.” This concept, which he has been refining his entire professional career, is the logical progression of modern art – to render a flat object three-dimensional, or to collapse a three-dimensional object into two dimensions – and is a fusion of countless complex artistic methods, including painting, printing, sculpting, welding, chemistry, digital manipulation and digital printing.

A student of both pop-art and deep classical culture, as well as the vast interceding spectrum, Rousso endeavors to express his commentary on the human condition while physically, psychically and temporally committing his entire life to the imaginative evolution of his visual artistry. Toward that end, his creative processes are linear and complex, with many pieces developing simultaneously, and painstakingly.

His first summer job – designing the Tribeca loft of Robert De Niro – combined with stints as a Hollywood scenic artist and a brief career steeped in the cosmetics industry as an art director at Grey Advertising on the Revlon account, lend a wry touch to the social commentary woven through his work, and his vast and encompassing worldview flavors everything he creates.

Rousso’s work is held in private collections over North America, Europe, the Middle East and beyond, and numerous public projects of his appear across the United States.

Raised in North Carolina, Rousso traces his inspiration to the paradoxes of the world around him and the work of the artists who began the conversation, as well as every artist through time who has advanced the subject or the art form. His work is deliberately attainable to nearly every viewer, and yet his classical training shines through as time-honored artistic conventions are woven through his work.

Rousso’s fascination with paper – currency, advertising, newspapers, magazines – its history and use, its rise and fall, is an emblematic theme reflected frequently in his compositions. Despite the complexity of Rousso’s artistic output, the character and subject matter of the art is relatable to all citizens of the world, so much so that it practically jumps off the wall, and straight into the viewer’s gestalt.

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Gabe Richesson (United States)

Gabe’s imaginative and boldly colorful style has made him a favorite among athletes looking for unique and unforgettable portraits and murals.

As a child growing up in Missouri, he spent hour after hour filling notebooks with cartoons and sketches of the people around him. He also loved to create detailed portraits of his favorite athletes including the local Kansas City Royals. His surreal yet realistic style had already taken shape by the time he attended college and received his first formal training in painting. In his youth, Gabe was also a passionate athlete, eventually playing football at the collegiate level, which provides him with an insider’s knowledge that greatly informs his work to this day.

Since his first painting for DeAngelo Hall in 2006, Gabe has continued to make a name for himself as a painter for the pros. He works closely with each athlete, turning their ideas and requests into one-of-a-kind portraits that capture their personality, as well as athletic prowess.

Gabe has been creating detailed portraits for many celebrated sports professionals, celebrities, and corporations involved in the sports industry for almost 10 years now.

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Billy Kheel (United States)

Using felt and thread, Billy Kheel builds soft sculptures and wall hangings. His approach plays with the concepts of masculine vs. feminine and folk vs. academic in relation to artistic process and intent. By using craft techniques to explore typically masculine subject matter, Kheel’s work is influenced by the impact of shifting gender roles on culture. Regardless of the subject of a given series, a sense of humor and warmth runs throughout his work. This is Kheel’s first exhibit with Black Book Gallery. Kheel has exhibited nationally and internationally and his work has been featured in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, KCRW’s Design and Architecture and KCET’s Artbound.

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Lindsey Kuhn (United States)

If there is a sublime correlation between art, music and skateboarding Lindsey Kuhn discovered it over 25 years ago. He fused these passions allowing him to embark on a successful career spanning three decades.

He was born 1968 in Evanston, IL then relocated to the Mississippi Gulf Coast at an early age. He started screen-printing t-shirts in 1983 to pay for maintenance of his massive backyard skate ramp (largest in the south at the time). The popularity of his clever and provocative designs propelled him into the first phase of the life of a professional artist.

Within a year of moving to Austin Texas in 1990, Kuhn started printing posters for Southern California based L’imagerie Gallery. L’imagerie financed a print shop in Austin which produced art for Robert Crumb, Ed Roth, Robert Williams, Joe Colman, Frank Kozik , Coop and others. Implementing this invaluable education Kuhn started to design and print posters of his own. He has worked with famous venues across the county like Jabberjaw, CBGB’s, Emos’s, Fillmore, The Metro, as a well as clubs around the world and of course in Denver.

Today, Kuhn is an artist of international distinction. He is best known for his original silk-screened rock posters for a wide variety of bands such as AC/DC, Jonny Cash, Tool, The Pixies, Devo, Pearl Jam, Eagles of Death Metal and hundreds more. His company Swamp, located in Denver, Colorado since 1997 also does custom printing and publishing for other artists.

Kuhn’s work has been featured in many tv shows, movies & books over the years. Most noteworthy are the “Art of Modern Rock” & “Lure of the SWAMP”. “Lure of the Swamp” is the best compilation of the rock posters he’s created throughout his career.

Kuhn’s work has received worldwide acclaim, including noteworthy shows in Japan, France, Switzerland, Germany, Argentina and many prominent galleries in America. He was also a featured artist in the documentary film, “American Artifact: The Rise of American Rock Poster Art” (2009).

His participation in the corporate domain features commissioned work for global entities such as Rhapsody, X-box, Camel, and Oakley. He also toured the SWAMP Art Exhibit with the “Southern Comfort Music Experience” for several years, displaying art & creating on the spot printing for each show.

Through it all, Kuhn was a primary creative force in a movement that gave birth to a new art form. His influence on culture only continues to expand, confront and inspire all that follow.

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Sergio Garcia (United States)

We, as humans, are naturally drawn to the unorthodox. I have always enjoyed the use of the unconventional as a base for my artwork. I enjoy creating art that people can relate to and that stimulates the creative subconscious. Not only to create an emotional relationship between art and viewer, but to conjure up questions of how and why. It is this desire to create a connection with the viewer that fuels my creativity.
My passion is creating a perfect balance of light and shadow. Light is the core of my artwork. Without light there is no art. Without art there is no life. Amen, brother.

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Joris Ghilini (France)

I was born in 1978. In 1996 I joined the Faculty of Law of Aix en Provence and graduated a few years later in intangible law and new technologies.

I became an intellectual property advisor but I left the profession in 2009 in order to pursue applied research on the concept of iconography and its endangerments.

I live and work in Paris.