Chaz Guest

The painter, designer and sculptor Guest Chaz was born in Niagara Fall, New York in 1961. He studied sports and graphic design at “Southern Connecticut State University”, obtained a diploma in Graphic Arts and then joined Fashion Institute of New York where he learned drawing. He left his country in 1987 for Paris, where he illustrated the haute-couture magazine Joyce. He then joined the teams of Yves Saint-Laurent and then of Christian Lacroix. Congratulated for his drawing, he decided to deepen his skills from the works of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and then progressed in painting. Living in Los Angeles today, he is one of the few artists who can boast of having had one of his works exhibited in the Oval Office of the White House when Barack Obama was president. His work is moving and narrative, it tells in particular the African-American history and that of slavery. His series of portraits quickly attracted the attention of collectors, notably “Cotton”, the series which transposes African-American portraits onto American flags of woven cotton. The “Geisha” and “Sumo” series also attest to his talent. In 2014, he told, through a series of works, the edifying story of a character he created: Buffalo Warrior, first a slave and then a good and just hero of the Civil War. Inspired by her son, the story will be adapted for cinema.