Lucky Mike`s - Steve Kaufman - SAK

1960	Born December 29, 1960 in Bronx, New York
1968	Had a one-child show at a local bank sponsored by a Jewish Temple in the Brox. The paintings, a series on the Holocaust, were donated to the Jewisch Holocaust Museum of Art in Brooklyn
1972	Negociated a deal with Macy`s to paint dog and cat faces onto customers rocks during the Pet Rock fad. Chosen, along with nine other students from the NYC school districts, to participate in a cultural art exchange between Japanese students.
1974	Awarded a summer scholarship at Parson`s School of Design for fine artsand design.
1976	Partisipates in a group graffiti show at the Whitney Museum represented by the Cherry Street Gallery.
1978-80	Enrolls in the School of Visual Arts. Meets Andy Warhol and becomes his assistant at The Factory. Designs theme parties for Sudio 54. Exhibits in nightclubs including Studio 54, Underground, Magique, Zippers, Heartbreak and Rags. Sells artwork through nightclubs to clients including Calvin Klein, Elizabeth Taylor and Steve Rubell.
1981	Exhibits an antique auto series at two Citibank locations. Citibank purchases the series for their private collection. Creates a book jacket for Debbie Harry of Blondie for Avon Books. Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising Agency purchases artwork for their private collection. Participates in agroup show at Club 57 with Keith Haring.
1982	Shows at the Air Gallery in London, White Freuds and Fiorucci`s. Creates TV graphics for NBC`s Saturday Night Live. Collaborates on Saturday Night Live`s famous Pop Art opening. Graduates from School of VisualArts second in his class.
1983-84	Exhibits Sex & Rock and Roll in a show at Off Centre Gallery, Money at Common wealth Gallery and Red, White & Blue at Kelley Gallery.
1986-88	Forms SAK Studio featuring pop art multiples, silk-screen on canvas. Showings at Main Fine Art, The Gallery, Edinburgh College of Art, Zanzibar Club and Smith Gallery. Creates a memorial series portrait of Andy Warhol to send to friends and clients. Moves to Fifth Avenue offices as client portraiture business invreases.
1989	Completes unfished portraits for Andy Warhol`s clients. Opens Art Studio to bring awareness to inner city problems. Begins city-wide campaign for AIDS awareness with Trojan signs embellished with skeletons, silk-screened onto plastic. Carter Wallace sponsors a one-man show and helps finance the Trojan sighns to raise money at an auction for Amfar. Creates 5,000 buttons on AIDS awareness to gibe away in Grennwich Village.
1990	Paints his first Racial Harmony mural in Harlem. Art Studio has a sold out show at the Loft Gallery in Tokyo. Paints portrait of three homeless people for Transportation Display, Inc. (TDI). The portraits are shown in 46 cities on bus billboards – the campaign raises $ 4.72 million to benefit the homeless. Collaborates with Eddie Murphy to create 300 portraits to be auctioned off to benefit Hale House. Has show at White Gallery – all art is covered in black cloth for the opening in memorial of all those who died because of AIDS. The show develops the concept for the “Day Without Art”, and all procceds go to AIDS victims. Art Studio is being shown in 75 galleries.
1991	Paints a boxing series signed by Joe Frazier to raise money for the Police Athletic League. Moves to a brownstone in Chelsea. Paints three portraits of Mickey Mantle for Mantle`s Restaurant uptown.
1992	Completes 55 Racial Harmony murals in the NYC area with Malcolm X images. Appears on Fox TV, MTV, radio stations and in magazines to speak on racial harmony. Creates a Racial Harmony series piece which is collected by Spike Lee, Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Dee Williams, Eddie Murphy and Larry Mullen (of U2). Art Studio`s reprensentation grows to almost 300 fine art dealers around the world. Throws art show parties on NYC subway cars to raise money for AIDS vitims. Creates the first and only AIDS Memorial in NYC. Paints a Meals on Wheels mural on the walls of the famous Spago Restaurant to bring attention to this problem and gain support for Meals on Wheels. The mural is 600 feet by 20 feet, with 7 foot long food products that move with the help of a motor and a conveyor belt, facing Sunset Boulevard, with over 100,000 cars a week passing by. Accepts Underground Artist of the Year award. Work is sold 6 % higher that expected at Christie´s. Creates giant Batman canvases, rugs and furniture for Arnold Scaasi, who learned to read from the Sunday comics, for his exhibit at the charity event for Literacy Volunteers of New York at ABC Carpets. Drapes red fabric over the letter “D” of the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles as a cryptic remembrance of everyone who has died from AIDS.
1993	Paints four portraits of Wolfgang Puck and Barbara Lazaroff, his wife, for Spago in Los Angeles.
1994	The Whitney Museum has purchased Comic Pop Art series for a private collection show 2 years from now; the title of the show will be the New Pop Art Generation. Creating a portrait for Larry Mullen of U2, who is a collector of Art Studio`s work. The portraits will be autographed by the band members and proceeds will benefit a major charity which is undecided as of this date. Art Studio, while keeping a NYC office, is opening a factory space in California to continue painting Comic Pop Art, creating customized Harley Davidsons with fibreglass sculptures, and furniture and fashion with designs silk-screened onto the fabric.
1995	Moves to their new location off Melrose in LA and opened his own Art Factory called Art Studio. Unlike Andy Warhol who hired socially accepted children and actors as his assistants, Steve Kaufman, a man born in the harsh world of New York City`s South Bronx, hires LA`s toughest gang members, straight from prison. On a good Monday, seven squad cars will be at his Studio bringing gang kids in hand cuffs to be interviewed by Kaufman. The kids build some 7,000 wooden frames for Kaufman`s paintings for his clients which include 173 Warner Brothers stores and 600 galleries nationwide. Worked with Martin Lawrence Gallery, the same gallery that represented Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and many other past and present artists. Created limited edition of Beethoven that sold out in 2 ½ months, and created Marilyn Monroe limited edition that broke all gallery records in sold out editions. Created Muhammad Ali`s portrait (500 piece edition)that sold out in 30 days. Createt three limited editions for Warner Brothers and was the first artist to form a bridge between Marvel Comics (Spiderman and the Hulk) and DC Comics (Superman and Batman) in fine arts. Kaufman has created large originals with Stan Lee, the creator of Marvel Comics, signing each painting with Kauman`s signature.
1996	His trip to Japan all 16 shows were sold out. Created John Travolta`s portrait for Mr. Travolta`s home. Created Paintings for Warner Brothers and Marting Lawrence. Created official 1996 Olympic Ali Paintings and Boxing gloves each of which were autographed by Ali. These paintings are now exhibited in Lax Vegas` Boxing hall of fame and Muhammad Ali Boxing museums.
1997	Plans for 1997 that I can talk about without giving away any of my surprises for the coming year: Working on his new movie “Kill`Em” which he wrote and intends to direct and act in, is a mixture of Pulp Fiction and Goodfellows meets the Godfather. To have 6 films go to the film festival and make a name for myself in the film world as I have done with fine arts. To team up with fine artists like Lichtenstein, Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns to work on projects together. To expand my multi-media creative centers from 7,000 to 200,000 sq. ft.; this is where we will be creating fine arts, sculptures and art movies. In 1997, U2 will be going on a worldwide tour. We are negotiating to have a major role in the design of stage, video and the overall look of the tour. Commission to created Campbell Soup paintings of cans and jars for Campbell Soup 100^th year anniversary. Frank Sinatra limited edition Portrait for Mr. Sinatra personally.