Christopher Cuseo

Born September 13 1979

Bio-

Moved to LA in 2000 from Santa Cruz. Put myself through collage as a freelance designer.   Worked on everything from building WebPages to designing corporate identities.   Thrived at UCLA winning various awards for my artistic achievements.   After graduating from UCLA In 2003,   I set out to create a career for myself as a artist.   

Education

•  BFA UCLA

Solo exhibitions

•  "What's underneath" Lather Hollywood CA

2005   "beautiful"    Morea Virginia Beach VA

2006   "The Approach"   Surry Hills Sydney AUS

2006   "Bella Morte" Devine quest of Haley star West Hollywood CA

2006   "style lounge"   Kari Feinstein Emmy party, Hollywood CA

Group exhibitions

•  "Down here its our time" Gallery 1988 LA

•  "Nuevo Abo" the attic gallery, Santa Cruz CA

     2005   "artists of Myspace" Koos Gallery, Long beach CA

     2005   "Roosevelt pool Show" Hollywood CA

     2005   "group Hug" Hollywood CA

     2006   "I Am 8bit" Gallery 1988 Hollywood CA

     2006 "simple Sexy" Ultra Star Gallery Hollywood CA

2006 "Life takes" visa 7 th and 10 th grenich village, NY

2006   "nobody walks artist movement"   aerospace1, Hollywood CA

2006   "speak easy" the bar, Hollywood CA

Publications

•  "Los Angeles" Italian D Feb

•  "Gallery Boom" Campus circle Aug

2005     "fros" Rojo Barcelona Nov.

  2005     "Pixilated Children" Get underground.com

      2006     "the artwork of Christopher Cuseo" Mongrel magazine Feb

"Pixilated Children" Get underground.com

09.01.05 - by: Sabrina Cognata

The same night I met Chris Cuseo I was on the verge of having a fist fight with Nicole Ritchie. I was stuck in the VIP section of yesterday's hip, LA nightclub because a friend swore that I would simply adore the scene. Turned out I didn't, as there were no bar stools and too many people. Among them were Nicole Ritchie and her makeshift posse of LA rejects and wannabes. I ended up dab smack in the middle of their "West Side Story" dance off. As a group, they gyrated around, jolting Nicole into me. Immediately, the skin on my face bubbled and melted like a piece of cooked cheese. I had turned into Freddy Krueger. Everyone around me realized that I was about to break a beer bottle and use it to carve my name on her face.  

I turned to my friend J.B, and said, "I am going to knock the shit out of that bitch." J.B looked at me and said "How fantastic!" grabbed my hand and went on. "Look who it is Sabrina, it's Chris Cuseo!" There he stood, a chisel-jawed man with wild curly hair, a giant grin and enough energy to fire laser beams from his chest. He bounced around like a ping pong ball gone awry, coincidentally becoming the focus of my attention. If anything else, he'd immediately diverted my attack on Nicole and the potential problem of jail time. Someone handed me another drink as I sized up this beaming beacon of energy. 

"Who is Chris Cuseo?" I asked. It was this question that preoccupied my mind, and by the time I remembered I was supposed to kick Ms. Ritchie's ass, she had vanished. 

I spent the rest of the night marveling at Cuseo's incredible ability to set the room on fire with his stunningly good looks and childlike magic. And even though I was entirely too drunk to walk, talk or make any decent judgment calls I hailed Cuseo a genius, explaining that I would, "Have to see him again!" Weeks later I brought him up while at coffee with friends, "So what about that Cuseo guy?" I prodded. "What's his story?" Turns out, he's an artist. My friends raved about his talents, but I remained unconvinced. It appeared his name and reputation had spread like a raging herpes outbreak throughout the various social circles in Los Angeles. I just had to check his work out for myself; in the case that he was as talented as everyone claimed, I'd have something to write about, and if he wasn't, well I've never lacked the words to explain something horrific. 

I met with Cuseo in his Los Angeles home that he shares with two roommates. He had recently completed a piece for a show at The Divine Quest for Hayley Starr , a progressive art gallery in West Hollywood. Halley had called him two days before the show and pleaded with him to come up with a piece that worked with her theme of "Love & Luck"--highlighting the colors mint green & pink. "I worked for two days without sleep to get it ready for the show," Cuseo explained. "I took two windows off the house here because it's mint green and then painted around it." He mentioned, he hoped the pieces sold because he wasn't sure if he could get his deposit back after using the windows as found art. The owner of The Divine Quest for Hayley Starr , Hayley Starr, told me she felt the need to incorporate Cuseo's talents in her show. "I called him on short notice," she said. "I asked him if he could complete a piece for me within two days, and he did."  

More so then merely his artistic aptitude, Cuseo's drive is impressive. He said "it all hit him" about 5 years-ago, when he left his hometown of Santa Cruz, California and moved to Los Angeles. He couch-surfed for about a year, surfing and enjoying the opportunities life presented him. "I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do," he told me. "So I decided I wanted to go back to school." Eventually, he started taking classes at Santa Monica Community College where he excelled in art classes, and was eventually accepted by University California Los Angeles, UCLA, on the power of his art portfolio. "I had really bad grades," he confessed, "and I was accepted to UCLA purely based on that art portfolio. It totally turned my life around and I became a student, a real student." Cuseo credited some professors for working closely with him to help him define his style and hone in on the extent of his creative abilities. "When I got to UCLA, I had a couple of professors who catered to my kind of attitude, which was, in an educational sense, the punk," Cuseo explained.  

Immediately after he graduated Cuseo began working on pieces for his first solo art show. "It took me about nine months to complete all the pieces," Cuseo said. He held it in a warehouse in Hollywood. "I did everything by myself. I got the whole thing together and I sold every piece in one week." Every piece, indeed: Cuseo sold thirty paintings in less than seven days. This accomplishment was a nominal feat for any seasoned veteran, let alone a newcomer, as talented as he may be. "People are buying based on trend and word of mouth," said Cuseo in regard to contemporary fads in accordance with his style of painting. According to Cuseo, he would not be as successful in any city except Los Angeles, due to the mounds of ignorant money fused in the hands of youthful art investors. "A lot of my clients are younger celebrities that are just starting their art collections," he continued. "It is so cool that this is becoming popular and people are investing in pieces, lighting them, and hanging them up." The cross-over of his subject matter and its popularity among art purchasers has propelled his recognition as an up-and-coming artist. "This is what people want right now."  

Most recently, Cuseo's subject matter has revolved around children. More specifically, his latest pieces involved children with trees growing wildly from the tops of their heads. He went on to explain that the trees signified the type of intellectual and emotional advancement that one undergoes as they grow and mature. He also said the children play an important role on the place he's at in his artistic vocation. "I am painting these children," Cuseo said, "Because I am in the youth of my career." The muse for his paintings was his 13-year-old sister, Angela. "[Angela] is the little girl I paint. She is the exact opposite of how I was at her age. Everyone adores her," the artist went on to admit, "while I was like a Tasmanian Terror-Devil." 

Themes of family and unity were used throughout most of his pieces. He also said the subject matter of children and nature appeals to a wide audience of contemporary art buyers. "I like to paint whales and elephants," said the artist. "They mourn. They have family and social structures. They are simple, but they seem like they know a lot more about life than we do. I would love to be one."   Cuseo admitted that he often feels like a lost child with the type of unstable, financial risks he takes as an artist. "I live month-to-month," he said explaining that his art is his sole source of income. "I sell paintings to make rent. I have to. I don't buy anything, my truck is outside dying, but it gives me more incentive to be in the studio, painting." Cuseo's desire for success has driven his ability to embrace his own future as fuel for his art. He said the work he's doing is a stepping-stone to accelerating his career. "I believe I have lot of work to do to build the kind of career that I want," said the artist, "but I feel like I am going in the right direction." Cuseo hopes that as his career continues to blossom the subject matter he embraces will flourish and grow.   Cuseo has found an investor and is working on pieces for a major solo exhibition for later this year. The pieces already completed have been received well. They go along with Cuseo's theme of youth and growth. Eventually, Cuseo said he plans to go back to school to get his Masters in Fine Art.