Paul Rousso

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About the artwork

Cash On The Table by Paul Rousso is a striking sculptural illusion that elevates currency into contemporary commentary. Using his signature technique of sculpted, oversized paper forms, Rousso presents a crumpled collage of global banknotes—from euros to dollars, yuan to won—capturing the universality and complexity of money. Hyperreal and distorted, these notes symbolize both value and disposability, reflecting our collective obsession with wealth, power, and consumerism. By rendering money as art, Rousso compels viewers to confront the paradox of what we chase, hoard, and eventually discard—transforming economic icons into visual poetry rich with irony and allure.

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.