In the last two decades, Rossin has established himself as one of the world’s leading masters of figurative paintings with emphasis on portraits. Best known for his large-scale oil hyper-realistic portraits on a stark white background, four of which are displayed in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, Rossin views himself as a student of human nature and spent most of his career analyzing the fine nuances of character and psychology in hundreds of his sitters.
In his latest collection, for the first time Rossin steps back and gives us a very unexpected, sometimes provocative view of his models. Unlike the hundreds of faces he painted of people, representing four continents, in his current collection the viewer sees full life-size figures engaged in activities loaded with mythological references or staged with some theatricality. The environment is often strange, surreal and is open to various interpretations.
Rossin is concerned with many social and environmental issues that go beyond the individual and are emblematic of our times.
Rossin’s brilliant oil-on-canvas technique is classical in its approach to the human body and astonishing detail but at the same time very modern with its unexpected juxtaposition of different themes, clothing, expressions, and bold color.
Born in Russe, Bulgaria in 1964, Ross Rossin began painting from a very young age and was introduced to the old master’s oil painting techniques by the age of 12. He was accepted to the National High School of Fine Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria and afterwards graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts.
In 1991, Rossin began his overseas travels, painting hundreds of paintings all over the world. He spent 5 years in Japan where he painted 150 portraits of various political and business leaders. His travels continued in Europe doing commission work and having solo exhibitions in France, Germany, Belgium, and England. His most notable works during this time featured the President of Bulgaria, the President of Cyprus, and the Lebanese Patriarch (which now hangs in the Vatican.)
Rossin moved to the US with his wife and newborn son in 2001. One of the first pieces he created after his move was a large-scale canvas of 13 x 20 feet, called “A Meeting in Time” which depicts the US Presidents of the 20th Century. Fifteen years later, two additional canvases were commissioned, completing the series of portraying all the US Presidents. All three colossal paintings reside in the Booth Museum and were featured in Rossin’s Southwest Exhibition in 2021.
Rossin created a collection of large-scale portraits called “American Royalty” featuring Abraham Lincoln, Jackie Kennedy, Babe Ruth, Audrey Hepburn, and George Washington.
The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has four of Rossin’s paintings, making Rossin the artist with the most paintings by a living artist in the permanent collection. These four paintings feature Ambassador Andrew Young, Morgan Freeman, Hank Aaron, and Maya Angelou.
In 2016, Rossin had a solo exhibition called “Ultimately Human” at the UN Palace of Nations. It was a mix of large-scale portraits of ordinary people he had met around the world as well as accomplished individuals such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, CNN founder Ted Turner, and US President Jimmy Carter, and many others. Rossin’s work also includes large-scale sculpture and busts, most notably featuring a 9-foot bronze statue of Hank Aaron for the Suntrust Baseball Park in Atlanta, Georgia.
