Paul Rousso

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About the artwork

"Cash Money Overflow" by Paul Rousso is an extraordinary artwork that demonstrates the artist's mastery of his unique flat depth method. Drawing inspiration from his lifelong pursuit of making the two-dimensional come alive in three-dimensional form, Rousso presents a captivating installation that reimagines the very essence of money. With his innovative technique, Rousso creates a giant crumpled piece of paper adorned with printed imagery, serving as a poignant commentary on the fading presence of paper currency in our increasingly digitized world. As Rousso himself explains, this transformation is a reflection of his desire to explore the reimagining of the most ubiquitous and crucial printed matter of all: money.

About the artist

American artist Paul Rousso transforms the fleeting into the monumental. Renowned for his hyperreal, oversized sculptures of crumpled currency, candy wrappers, newspapers, and glossy magazine pages, Rousso interrogates our relationship with media, materialism, and memory. His works playfully immortalize what is typically tossed aside—objects meant to be consumed and forgotten—elevating them into timeless icons of contemporary culture. Rousso’s practice draws from a diverse background in scenic design, digital manipulation, and commercial art direction, all of which converge in his meticulously crafted sculptures.

Through a proprietary process of heat infusion on plexiglass and other materials, he sculpts paper-thin forms that mimic real-life textures with startling accuracy. The result is artwork that is both technically impressive and conceptually resonant—wrinkled banknotes and discarded ads become touchpoints for nostalgia, identity, and cultural commentary. Influenced by Pop Art masters like Lichtenstein and Warhol, as well as the fantastical stylings of Dr. Seuss, Rousso infuses his work with wit, color, and scale. But beneath the playful surface lies a quiet urgency: a meditation on the impermanence of media in a world where physical print is vanishing.

By preserving these ephemeral artifacts in larger-than-life form, he invites viewers to pause, reflect, and consider what we value—and what we throw away.