What comes to mind when you think of “pop art”? If the works of Fazzino aren’t included in your musings of soup cans or Marilyn Monroe’s multi-colored faces, they should be. Charles Fazzino isn’t called the “Master of 3D Pop Art” for no reason, and as one of the most iconic and widely-collected pop artists of all time he has a 30+ year long track record to back up that title.
On December 26th, 1955, Charles Fazzino was born to a Finnish sculptor named Irene, and an Italian shoe designer named Salvatore. Art became a passion for Fazzino through his first formal art class in 1967 while in middle school, with his first solo art exhibition following soon after in 1968. The passion for his craft only blossomed through to college - Fazzino graduated from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan in 1977 with a Bachelor Degree of Fine Arts, majoring in both Illustration and Printmaking.
The three-dimensional silkscreen serigraphs that Fazzino has come to be so known and loved for had a clear start in his life. While Fazzino was young on a trip to Florida, Fazzino stumbled upon a store holding a free class about paper tole techniques. Paper tole is the craft of cutting, shaping, and glueing many identical prints of paper together to create layered, 3D effects. This reminded Fazzino of the pop-up books of his youth, and left him creatively inspired to venture down a whole new artistic path. Upon returning to New York, Fazzino cut out many city street scene prints and layered them together to create the 3D effect, giving new life to the once flat prints. Fazzino soon noticed that people were buying these new, three-dimensional pieces of his over his traditional, two-dimensional work.
“The process really comes from doodles as a child, and then I love pop-out books and did a little bit of printmaking in school...Everything came together.” - Charles Fazzino
Such fascinating works often leave people asking if machines created the beautiful 3D scenes, as they’re of such superior quality and there are just SO many pieces! Well, believe it or not, ALL of Fazzino’s works are hand-drawn, hand-printed, hand-cut, and hand-glued. From beginning to end, the process Charles Fazzino has for making his incredible art is awe-inspiring. The process starts in a research phase, which could take several months depending on the subject matter being drawn. Then Fazzino takes this research and creates a flat, detailed, and colored drawing to be sent off to be printed into silkscreen. One layer of this is used as a base, while thinner “flats” in the silkscreen are used as cutouts for the layering process. Layering is typically done in three layers, (“Layered like a lasagna” as Fazzino famously self-describes the process), and then finished by hand with glitter glue and Swarovski crystals for the iconic flair we all know and love in his works. For a more detailed look into this process, please visit this page on his website: (
https://www.fazzino.com/art-blog/making-the-fazzino-singapore/)
Charles Fazzino’s works can be seen in hundreds of museums and galleries spanning over 20 countries. He has breached the barriers of artist, and has been called a “pop culture historian” due to the wide spectrum of his work, and the manner in which he touches his audience by capturing the best in each of their lives, regardless of where they’re from. Aside from his gallery representation, Fazzino keeps busy with being the official, licensed artist of the NFL for the Super Bowls since 2001, as well as the artist for at least thirteen Major League Baseball All-Star Games. Fazzino is no stranger to being an official artist for major events outside of sports as well - you can see his works for events like the Olympics, Grammy Awards, Daytime Emmy Awards, and he even boasts a theatrical nomination in 2013 for his live art experience, “The Fazzino Ride”.
Come see the works of - and meet - this accomplished artist here at Fascination St. Fine Art and Frame on Friday, September 14th from 5pm-8pm, and Saturday, September 15th from 1pm-4pm. Charles Fazzino will be dedicating any purchased artwork as well as chatting with collectors. Thanks for stopping by and we all hope to see you at the show!
For more information on this event, please don’t hesitate call us at 303-333-1566 or reach out to the gallery with any of the following:
Instagram: @fascinationstfineartgallery
