Van
Arno was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee and grew up in St.
Louis, Missouri where he attended a Christian Science school
from kindergarten through high school. He was accepted at Otis
Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles where he studied under
Carol Caroompas and Lita Albquerque, supporting himself working
late nights as a bouncer in nightclubs and adult video arcades.
As
a young illustrator his work appeared on album covers, video game
box art, and nightclub posters around the city. By the late
eighties, he began producing large 'cut-out' paintings blending
cartoon imagery with portraits of cultural and historical icons.
These early 'cut-out' paintings used black lines and luridly
cartoon color to depict characters ranging from John F. Kennedy
to Herman Goering to Othello. His guerrilla installation of a 12
foot tall Angel 'cut- out' could be seen hovering over Sunset
Boulevard in Hollywood Christmas 1992. In the early 90s he
became fascinated with the calendar of the ancient Maya, and
traveled to Yucatan to see the ruins at Chichen Itza, Coba and
Tulum. At the same time, he began to create heroic figurative
works featuring religious and folk heroes from Christian, Mayan
and American history (St. Francis, John Barrymore, Joan of Arc,
Nat Turner, Nellie Bly) in cell vinyl on masonite.
This
work was shown extensively in Los Angeles, Seattle, Santa
Fe, Nashville and New York. He also captured attention with his
series of Olive Oyl paintings, documenting her life as a
waterfront floozy. He has frequently been featured in Juxtapoz
Magazine since 1999. In the spring of 2000, several of his pieces
were included in a national survey of Lowbrow painters at the
Hollywood Art and Culture Center in Florida along with Mark
Ryden, Chaz Bojorquez, Kenny Scharf, Anthony Ausgang and others.
Van
was pleased to speak at the opening to detail the history of
'lowbrow' painting and its place in art history. In the fall of
2000, he painted a 36-foot billboard for the East Side Artcrawl
entitled 'Abolitionist Goat War' which received local news
coverage for its indictment of pimp culture. In 2004, Van was
honored to have a solo show in Hamburg, Germany, which was well
covered in the local press because of growing interest in the
JUXTAPOZheit movement, and the Presidential election, 3 days
earlier.
More
recently, he has been exclusively painting in oil on canvas and
wood panels. He continues to push the human figure into more and
more extreme postures, causing him to name his painting style
Uber-Mannerism. His ongoing fascination with the imagery of
Religion and its use of the heroic figure found new relevance
recently, as American 'values' were re-examined at home and
abroad. Although he has been exploring non-narrative themes
recently, his focus remains on the figure and it's power to
engage the viewer.
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