Mark Kostabi

Mark Kostabi emerged as one of the most recognizable figures from New York’s legendary 1980s East Village art scene, working alongside contemporaries like Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. His signature faceless, robotic figures inhabit surreal worlds exploring themes of love, isolation, technology, and modern anxieties. After studying at California State University, Fullerton, he began selling designs to Los Angeles galleries at age 19, quickly attracting celebrity collectors before moving to New York in 1982.
Inspired by Warhol’s Factory and Picasso’s collaborations with ceramic artisans in Vallauris, Kostabi created “Kostabi World,” a New York studio where he works with teams of artists to produce artwork in his trademark style. This innovative approach generated widespread media attention, including profiles on The Oprah Winfrey Show, 60 Minutes, CNN, and in People Magazine. A career highlight came during the Cold War when he became the only contemporary Western artist to have a modern art show at the Hermitage in Russia before the fall of the Soviet Union.
Today, Kostabi splits his time between New York and Rome, represented by Park West Gallery. His work appears in over 50 permanent museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the National Gallery in Washington D.C., and the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome. His collectors range from Bill Clinton to Luciano Pavarotti, Sylvester Stallone, and Bill Gates.