Mark Kostabi

Kalev Mark Kostabi (born November 27, 1960) is an American painter, sculptor and composer.

Early life Kostabi was born in Los Angeles on November 27, 1960, to Estonian immigrants Kaljo and Rita Kostabi. Beyond traditional art world exposure, Kostabi has designed album covers for Guns N' Roses (Use Your Illusion) and The Ramones (¡Adios Amigos!), Seether (Holding Onto Strings Better Left to Fray),

Music

Kostabi has performed his musical compositions as a soloist and with other musicians including Ornette Coleman, Jerry Marotta, Tony Levin, Stefano di Battista, Gene Pritsker, Mark Egan, Lukas Ligeti, Dave Taylor (trombonist), Chris Parker, Tommy Campbell, Lara St. John, John Clark, Adam Holzman, Aaron Comess, John Lee and Paul Kostabi. Con Artist directed by Michael Sladek, Kostabi has a prominent role in the Emmy award-winning documentary The Art of Failure: Chuck Connelly Not for Sale directed by Jeff Stimmel. "Full Circle: The Kostabi Story", directed by Sabrina Digregorio.

Kostabi produces a cable TV show, The Kostabi Show, where noted art critics and celebrities compete to title his paintings for cash awards. While Kostabi apologized in Newsday, saying, "I feel terrible for saying something that was an unfair generalization based on a few specific experiences with gay curators and critics that left me very angry," he retracted the apology ten days later, stating that he was pressured to apologize by Abbeville Press, the publisher of the then upcoming Kostabi: The Early Years. Kostabi told the Post's Page Six, "They made me write all these phony apologies." He reaffirmed his previously stated opinions on gay men, arguing again that gay men dominate the art world and "that's why there's so much bad art in the world."

Life: The Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality, Publisher Penguin Random House

Culture or Trash?: A Provocative View of Contemporary Painting, Sculpture, and Other Costly Commodities, Publisher: Birch Lane Pr (December 1993)