Born in Brooklyn, New York, American pop artist James Rizzi was one of the first artists to bring the art of three-dimensional construction into the mainstream, most notably in printmaking. In college at the University of Florida, he developed what would become his trademark technique of hand coloring a silkscreen print and then taking cut outs from a second print and attaching them over the the corresponding images in the first print using wire. Later he began using an adhesive foam. The result was what he called 3-d serigraph construction art. In the 1970's Rizzi moved to New York, where he made a living as a street artist, selling his whimsical pop-art constructions to tourists outside museums. His work was teeming with life and vibrant color; the way he saw the streets of New York. As he became more recognized, he participated in shows and signed with a publisher who began to market his work internationally, creating hand-signed and numbered limited edition serigraph prints that were sold worldwide. Rizzi's accomplishments were many, including being the official artist at the Atlanta Centennial Olympic Games in 1996. He was particularly in Germany, where he worked with Volkswagen and charities and received several honors and museum recognition. He produced a limited-edition print, "Gone with the Wind," to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He died in his Brooklyn studio during the night of December 26, 2011.