Charles Fazzino is an American pop artist, known for his silkscreen serigraphs in a 3D pop art style. His artwork is influenced from urban landscapes, sporting events, and celebrities.

Background

Born in 1955, Charles Fazzino is the son of a Finnish sculptor (Irene) and an Italian mode shoe designer (Salvatore). He took his first formal art class as a 7th grader in 1967 and later graduated from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan in 1977 with a degree in Bachelor of Arts. Fazzino's artwork is displayed in 20 countries. A majority of his event-specific artwork for major events represents The Super Bowl, The Grammy Awards, The Pori Jazz Festival, Major League Baseball All-Star Game, and the Daytime Emmy Awards. Fazzino is known for the three-dimensionality of his silkscreen serigraphs. He showed his first three-dimensional print at the Greenwich Village Art Show in New York City that May. Fazzino entered the gallery circuit when he sold his first 3D offset lithographs to a gallery in Michigan. He began using the silkscreen printing process in 1986. The artist begins with a rough sketch of a flat concept idea that is then rendered by freelance illustration artists adding people to the scene and cleaning up the image and return it to Fazzino for him to sign. Freelance artists render all portraits and likenesses in Fazzino paintings. Digital reproductions are made & the flat prints are returned to Fazzino's studio where around 40 freelance artists pick up the work and have a week to complete about 10-30 3D prints with small ones being completed in 30 minutes and larger ones in a few hours for a base artist pay. Frelance artists cut them out with an Xacto knife, and mount them onto heavier boards using household silicone glue to create the 3D layered effect. Fazzino often equates the process of building up the layers of artwork to "layering it like a lasagna." The 3D artworks are glittered and given Swarovski crystals.

Special event commissions

NFL Super Bowl Charles Fazzino's art has been featured in every Super Bowl for the National Football League since the 2001 Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa Bay, Florida. Fazzino was profiled by CBS News Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood on Charles Osgood Sunday in New Orleans, Louisiana on February 3, 2013. He also created a painting for Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014, where the Seattle Seahawks defeated the Denver Broncos at MetLife Stadium, as well as The New England Patriots 2015 win in Super Bowl XLIX in Phoenix, Arizona. Fazzino's licensed commemorative painting for Super Bowl LI in Houston, Texas, valued at $15,000 UDS, was unveiled at a private reception. The painting was later auctioned off and proceeds were donated to the WithMerci Foundation. During the week leading up to Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta, Charles Fazzino appeared in a segment for Inside Edition.com, during which he was interviewed by the program's guest Super Bowl correspondent Kelleth Cuthbert, aka the Fiji Water Girl. Fazzino commemorated his twentieth Super Bowl for the National Football League during Super Bowl LIV in Miami. The artist appeared at The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and at the Super Bowl Experience in the Miami Beach Convention Center alongside former NY Giant Mathias Kiwanuka and Miami Dolphin Davon Godchaux. League Baseball Fazzino has created artwork for more thirteen Major League Baseball All-Star Games. In 2014, when the All-Star Game was in Minneapolis, he partnered with The Minnesota Twins Community Foundation to raise funds. Fazzino was also commissioned to create the official artwork for the 75th Anniversary of Little League Baseball. As part of the project, he spent several days in Williamsport in February 2014, conducting educational workshops for students and teachers. The resulting work was exhibited during the World Series at the Gallery at Penn College. Fazzino's official art was also unveiled during the series and installed in the World of Little League Museum. Daytime Emmy Awards Grammy Awards United States Olympic Committee Theater In 2012, he collaborated with the producers of The Ride. The Fazzino Ride was an interactive tour of Manhattan designed by Fazzino and Ride producer Richard Humphrey. The Fazzino Ride was nominated for a 2013 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience. Winterfest Boat Parade Charles Fazzino was commissioned to create the official artwork for the 50th anniversary of the Fort Lauderdale Winterfest Boat Parade. **Toys for Tots**In 2022, Fazzino commissioned by the United States Marin Corps Reserve's Toys for Tots program to create their 75th Anniversary Commemorative art. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro unveiled Charles Fazzino's official artwork for the 75th anniversary of the US Corps. Reserve Toys for Tots in 2022. The artwork was mounted on Toys for Tots donation boxes during the 2022 holiday season. On December 12, 2022, Charles Fazzino participated in the FLOTUS Dr. Jill Biden’s Toys for Tots Annual Sorting Event with POTUS Joe Biden. On December 13, Fazzino attended a Soft Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for the Toys for Tots Wall at The Pentagon, where his Official Toys for Tot’s 75th Anniversary artwork was permanently mounted. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro and Lieutenant General David G. Bellon awarded Fazzino the Department of the Navy’s Superior Public Service Medal at the end of the ceremony.

Major works and public installations

JFK International Airport Collection for American Airlines at Terminal 8: The collection includes a 6' by 7' rotating 3D sculpture of an American Airlines plane entitled From New York...to the World and a 13' three-dimensional mural.

Museum installations and exhibitions

In 2010–2011, Fazzino hosted a major museum exhibition titled "The Faces of Fort Lauderdale" at the Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale. The exhibition celebrated the 100-year history of the area. Fazzino's first major museum exhibition in Germany took place from April 27 through June 22 at the International Academy of Art in Hembach. The district of Kreis Duren invited the artist to exhibit at the Academy and commissioned him to create an edition of artwork titled "For the Love of Kreis Düren". In 2015, Fazzino was chosen to participate in a group show at the Coral Springs Museum of Art in Florida. The show, titled "The Art of Pop & Comics" featured eight pieces by Fazzino, including a tribute to the Masters titled "A Cartoon Celebration of the Masters," in which Fazzino weaves cartoon characters into pieced-together scenes. "This is a tribute piece," said Fazzino. "The paintings I chose from the Masters are so incredibly recognizable, as are the characters now interwoven throughout them. It's a meeting of two worlds with two different languages that come together in this one, intricately assembled, composition." In 2015, Fazzino was commissioned to create an artwork celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Singapore. He made his debut in the country in May 2015 to participate in several receptions and a media tour. In 2017, Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County opened a Fazzino exhibit in their museum titled "The Heroes of the Holocaust," featuring several new original works, and a series of plexiglass sculptures paying tribute to those who saved the lives of Jews during and after World War II. The limited edition artwork created specifically for the exhibit, "After the Darkness" was unveiled by Dani Dayan, Counsel General of Israel in New York. In 2021, Charles Fazzino was commissioned by the National September 11 Museum & Memorial to create an image in tribute to the 20th anniversary of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. The artwork was unveiled in a ceremony at the Museum with Anthoula Katsimatides, 9/11 family member; Joseph Esposito, former Chief of Department, NYPD; Salvatore Cassano, former Commissioner, FDNY; Salvatore Carcaterra, former Deputy Chief, NYPD; and San Panchal, former 1st grade detective, NYPD, Bernie Williams, retired NY Yankee, Pete Alonso, NY Met. In 2024, the Osthuas Museum Hagen selected Charles Fazzino's artwork to be featured in a tribute exhibition for pop artist Joe Tilson. For the month of February, a selection of Fazzino's artwork was exhibited alongside the work of the late British artist and other renown pop artists. In 2024, Fazzino commissioned by the White House Historical Association to create a commemorative artwork for an interactive educational experience in Washington D.C. called, "The People's House: A White House Experience". The commemorative artwork is entitled "The People's House: A Quilt of White House History”, and illustrates the history of the White House and the families who resided in it throughout United States history. The artwork is on display at The People’s House: A White House Experience.

Exhibits

Fazzino's work is exhibited in: 2009 – Official Artist Pori Jazz Festival in Pori, Finland 2013 – The official artist for the annual Foie de Lyon festival in Lyon, France 2015 Joint Exhibition with Dudu Gerstein (David) at Habitat Centre in New Delhi Korean International Art Fair, 2016–2019 3D Studio Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA Ocean Galleries, Stone Harbor, NJ, Wentworth Galleries in Atlanta, GA; Boca Raton, FL; Hollywood, FL; Fort Lauderdale, FL Short Hills, NJ; Alexandria, VA; Bethesda, MD; King of Prussia, PA Art One Gallery, Hollywood, CA Barker Animation, Cheshire, CT

Books