Artist Profile: Chris Spollen

Chris Spollen (August, 1952 – September, 2019). Chris Spollen had been a life-long resident of Staten Island. He was accepted into The High School of Art and Design, and then received a full scholarship to Parsons School Of Design NYC in 1971. Over the past fourty years in his role as an award-winning illustrator, Chris was a pioneer in the field of graphic art and Illustration. Not only did he have his own home-built darkroom and a professional stat camera in his home, but he was also one of the first to introduce the computer in 1990 into the world of illustration. With it being his specialization, Chris devoted his passion and love for illustration to his established company, Moonlight Press Studio; after 30 years of entrepreneurship, he began teaching his knowledge of art and computer to the students at the Fashion Institute of Technology, which continued for some 20 very joyful years as an Adjunct Associate Professor. Spollen’s work has won numerous awards and is featured in many permanent collections, including The New Britain Museum of Illustration, The Museum of American Illustration, The Norman Rockwell Museum, the US Air Force Art Program, and The Pentagon. He’s also published several books of his illustrations; the latest one, The Art of Recycling, is a three hundred page full colored book of Chris Spollen’s recent sculptures published in 2015. In the summer of 2019, Chris Spollen showcased his Solo exhibition “Modeling the Future” at the Fashion Institute of Technology; and immediately after, pieces from the exhibition were transported and displayed at Bergdorf Goodman’s display 5 windows on 5th Ave for the entire month of August 2019. The summer of 2019 had been the perfect finale for Chris’s passionate devotion for art.