Van Arno
Van Arno was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He studied at Otis Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles. His illustrations have appeared on album covers, video game box art, and nightclub posters around the city. In the late 1980s he produced large cut-out paintings that blended cartoon imagery with portraits of cultural and historical icons. His guerrilla installation of a 12-foot-tall angel cut-out could be seen hovering over Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood during Christmas 1992. In the early 1990s Arno created his acclaimed series of heroic figurative works featuring religious and folk heroes in cell vinyl on masonite. In 2000 several of his pieces were included in a national survey of lowbrow painters at the Hollywood Art and Culture Center in Florida.
In 2004 a solo show in Hamburg, Germany, received extensive media coverage due to the growing interest in the JUXTAPOZheit movement. More recently Arno was introduced to oil painting. His ongoing fascination with the imagery of religion and its use of heroic figure continues to find new relevance in his latest work.