About Rossin
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.
"Art gives us a sense of permanence."
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.
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.
In 2003, the double portrait of Presidents George H. Bush and George W. Bush was unveiled in the George H. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
In 2004, Rossin’s large-scale masterpiece “Meeting In Time”, a portrait of all US Presidents of the XXth Century, gathered in the Cross Hall of the White House, took its place in the Booth Museum, Cartersville, USA.
President Jimmy Carter sat for Rossin in 2011. The resulting portrait hangs in The Carter Presidential Library and Museum.
In 2012, Rossin’s portrait of King George VI, marking Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee, was accepted by H.R.M. Queen Elizabeth II and became her royal property.
In June 2013 in New Delhi, Rossin’s portrait of Mahatma Gandhi was presented to the Prime Minister of India by the Secretary of State John Kerry.
In 2014 Atlanta’s Center For Human and Civil Rights opened its doors – a museum centered around Rossin’s core portrait collection of 7 key world legendary activists.
On Apr. 7th, 2015, a US Forever Postage stamp was unveiled in Washington, DC, featuring Rossin’s image of the legendary Maya Angelou.
Portraits of four Coca-Cola Company presidents - Mr. Roberto Goizuetta, Mr. Doug Ivester, Mr. Neville Isdell and Donald Keogh lead an impressive list of more than 500 portraits that Rossin has created in the last 15 years while in the States.
The large-scale portrait of baseball legend Babe Ruth, as well as legendary Hank Aaron, grace the national Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.
In 2024 Rossin was nominated for a Grammy award, for his work as an executive producer in "Jimmy Carter, Last Sundays in Plains”.
