Art

The Birth of Cerealism  / Frosted Flakes #1 (Portrait of an American Classic), March 30, 1996,  9” X 12”, Cereal box collage on legal pad cardboard.

The original art is in a private collection in St. Louis, Missouri, USA 

“This is the first collage I ever made using a cereal box cover, or any consumer packaging for that matter. It was the beginning of a whole new phase of my art. After this, I decided to try & create many of these “portraits” of a whole array of “famous” and “classic” products. Over the course of several years I made hundreds (if not thousands) of these types of collages, which I later started calling ‘Cerealism’, but this was the first and therefore often refer to it as, ‘The Birth of Cerealism’. This collage actually changed the course of my life, or at least marks the exact point at which I began a whole new phase of my art & life.”

M A

The Victim (Self Portrait), 1988 “This early wax oil drawing was what I considered my first serious art creation. It is a self portrait on my college bed with my legs sticking out at the bottom, my hands in the act of drawing the picture & a montage of all the brands & things that were in my dorm room at NYU back then. I spent a month working on this piece which was longer than any other project I had worked on up to that point in my life. It’s amazing to look at this now, over 30 years later & remember what my life was like back then & what I consumed & used at the time. The poster is rare & out of print, with only about 25 left from the original edition of 1,000. A limitedition archival giclee on paper or canvas is available for purchase as well.” M A

Sir Real Red Apple Man, 1994 “This wax oil drawing was one of the first characters I created for the brand of fruit juices I founded in 1993. For each flavor there was a different fruit head with an eye wearing a tuxedo & sporting a bowler hat. The Red Apple Man was originally featured on bottles of organic apple juice & today can be found on jars of Apple Sauce & Apple Butter that I still make & sell under the Sir Real Brand. The original drawing on museum board is only 2” X 2” in size!” M A

This image is available as a fine art print on canvas or rag paper.

Sir Real Lemon Man 1995

Cheerios  Identical Twins #1 August 1998

“After creating my first ‘Cerealism’ collage (Frosted Flakes #1 above), I began a phase where I would deconstruct & then reconstruct the covers of cereal box brands & then later all sorts of consumer brand packages in printed cardboard boxes. Within 3-4 years I had created over 700 original cereal box collages & close to 500 other brands including cookies, crackers, soda, rice, oat meal & many others. I thought it interesting how we could almost instantly recognize the brands no matter how abstracted I had made them. And I thought they were beautiful to look at. Almost like Jackson Pollack meets Andy Warhol and Picasso!  This unusual set of two collages created in August of 1998 featured two of the same exact Cheerios boxes all cut up into a pile of pieces & then composed into 2 separate but very similar individual cereal box cover collages.”  M A

A Limitedition fine art on canvas of this and the other twin are available for sale as a set.

Cheerios on Black Identical Twins #2 August 5, 1998

“This is is the second of the Identical Twins Cheerios Box collages created in San Diego, California in August 1998.”  M A

A Limitedition fine art on canvas of this and the other twin are available for sale as a set.

Lucky Charms / December 27, 1998

One of the over seven hundred in Albert’s transformative “Cerealism” series of collages created between 1996-2001

A Limitedition fine art on canvas of this image is available for sale.

Quisp Cereal Box Collage created on March 29, 2020 is one of Albert’s Retro Cerealisms featuring the cover of the classic, iconic Quisp Brand that was popular during Albert’s childhood in the 1970s.

A Limitedition fine art on canvas of this image is available for sale.

Froot Loops / Cerealism Collage 112497

Over a period of approximately 3 years I created over 700 original Cereal Box deconstructions, or ‘Cerealism’ collages as they’ve come to be known. Froot Loops was one of my favorite iconic brands to

This ‘Froot Loops’ collage was created on November 24, 1997.

A limitedition fine art canvas of this image is available for sale as is the original collage.

Trix Cereal Box Collage (Squares) created on January 4, 1997

This is one of about 20 original Trix collages created as part of the transformative Cerealism series of collages Albert created mostly from 1996-2000.

A limitedition fine art canvas of this image is available for sale as is the original collage.

Peanut Butter Cap’N Crunch Cereal Box Collage created on January 1, 1997

This is one of about 30 original CAP’N Crunch collages created as part of the transformative Cerealism series of collages Albert created mostly from 1996-2000. The unique sunburst design was the first swirl effect Albert used in his Cerealism series.

A limitedition fine art canvas of this image is available as is the original collage.

Rice Krispies (Squares) Cerealism Collage 1998

This is one of about 25 original Rice Krispies collages created as part of the transformative Cerealism series of collages Albert created mostly from 1996-2000.

A limitedition fine art canvas of this image is available as is the original collage.

FIVE Dollar Bill (Portrait of Lincoln), 2000

“After creating many collages of famous iconic brands I began deconstructing other iconic imagery such as money, photos of famous buildings, and portraits of famous people. This collage of a Five Dollar Bill qualifies in several regards, as it is not only a portrait of the currency we all use in our everyday lives, but is also a portrait of who is generally regarded as our greatest President. Can you find the secret messages, my initials & the year it was created which are within this collage creation?” M A

A rare limitedition print is available of this image.

LOVE (Pink), 2002  / Pop Cubist “Portrait” of a Strawberry Charleston Chew package created in 2002 as part of Albert’s C’Andy Warhol series that was featured at Albert’s One Man Show at Dylan’s Candy Bar in NYC in Spring 2003. The original collage was a collage created with the box that was used to merchandise the candy bars & a fine art canvas was produced 30″ on the long side in a limitedition.

York Peppermint Patty, 2002  from Albert’s C’Andy Warhol series. This image was debuted at Albert’s One Man Show at Dylan’s Candy Bar in 2002-2003.

A limitedition fine art canvas is available as is the original collage.

Etude / D’Ag 250, 2002  Original Collage 32″ X 40″

“This EPIC logo study arranged in alphabetical order was a special project created for D’Agostino Supermarkets in 2002. Every logo that appears on this collage involved getting permission from the company that either owned or distributed the brand to D’Agostinos. It took the artist 18 months to get the roughly 275 brands to agree to be part of this unique artwork, which involved a phone conversation, emails back & forth, a signed form giving permission to D’Agostinos, a check for $250 per brand & sending Mr. Albert a piece of packaging to use in the composition of this original work of art. Once permission was granted and packaging & payment were sent in, it took Albert another 4 months to complete the art.  After the original was completed a limitedition offset poster was created in an edition of 1,000  which was given out as a free gift to shoppers over a 7 week period of time in 2003.

There are a small amount of these offset prints still available for purchase.

Etude (Candy Logos A to Z) is an original 32″ X 40″ collage created in 2002. It is a montage of candy & gum brand logos arranged alphabetically on an 8-ply acid-free white museum board. After being displayed at Dylan’s Candy Bar as the centerpiece of Albert’s one-man show, it was originally in the collection of John & Carmen Fernandez and then Paul & Abby Fernandez in New Jersey. It is now back in the artist’s collection.

This image is available for sale as a limitedition offset poster as well as a fine art print on archival rag paper with archival ink.

You Know What They Say, 2003  “After putting the messages in the top portion of “The Last Breakfast” collage in 2001, I had the idea to make a collage that was all messages. This was my first in that series & it involved several months of ‘collecting’ a list of phrases, proverbs & idioms that I felt conveyed wisdom before spending nearly 3 months making the 20” X 32” collage construction. These phrases when uttered by people are often preceded with the phrase, ‘You know what they say’!”  M A

‘I Am The Walrus’, 2004  “In 2004 I began creating smaller scale collages featuring bits of text from history, literature, religious writings & song lyrics. I have continued to this day to read & listen carefully to identify sayings & quotes that are particularly interesting & meaningful to me. In this case, I spent a good amount of time listening to The Beatles & ended up choosing two lyrics that I thought represented their finest poetry and philosophy. This collage is the opening lyric from the song ‘I Am The Walrus’. I’ve also done numerous collages of another famous Beatles lyric, ‘All You Need is Love’ ”. M A

The New Colossus (Statue of Liberty), 2004 “This rare poster was one of my early history & poetry inspired collages that I started creating after ‘The Gettysburg Address’. It is also a girl power piece and as you can see along the bottom, Lady Liberty, the central figure, is surrounded by the 12 female apostles all chosen from iconic consumer brands.” M A

Mount Rushmore, 2004 “In 2004 while I was working on my book, “An Artist’s America” (Henry Holt, 2008) I came up with several new ideas for Americana-themed works. A collage depiction of Mount Rushmore was one of these. In this, the original version of the idea, I picked 4 iconic consumer brand characters to represent the 4 U.S. Presidents with a Rice Krispies Blue sky and a line from the Star Spangled Banner. I chose these characters for the following reasons: The Colonel from KFC represented Abraham Lincoln because Lincoln was born in Kentucky, CAP’N Crunch represented Theodore Roosevelt because of his big moustache, I thought the Quaker Oats man looked a bit like Thomas Jefferson & I imagined that if George Washington took off his wig & three corner hat he might look like Mr. Clean!”  MA

A limitedition fine art print on canvas is available of this image.

There are several alternative versions of this idea available as originals.

Pledge of Allegiance, 2004

“After creating the Gettysburg Address in 2003, I began creating other American history-based collages including this 16” X 20” representation of the Pledge of Allegiance. I thought this was a perfect subject for Pop Art as it is what school children recite every morning in school. There are very few things that every American citizen recites every day like this. In this collage I also included 50 brand logos & characters to represent the 50 States.” M A

A limitedition offset print of this image is available.

A fine art giclee on canvas and digital lithograph on rag paper is available of this image,

The 23rd Psalm, 2006  Original Collage 16″ X 20″  “Starting in 1997 I began creating artworks with religious themes. My first was a collage representation of the Last Supper (that I called ‘The Last Breakfast’ and which is featured in my book, “An Artist’s America”) and since then have created many other “Religious Studies”. Some a representations of famous Biblical scenes & others are more text based like this collage representation of the beautiful & well known 23rd Psalm of David. The original collage is 16” X 20” and took me over 6 weeks to complete.” M A

Dark Star / Grateful Dead photo collage 2007 photos taken by Michael Moskowitz at Grateful Dead concert in New Haven, Connecticut Spring Tour May 1977

This photo collage was created for my friend Michael Moskowitz who used to work for Signmasters, Inc in Passaic New Jersey, which was owned by my printer / collector friend John Fernandez. Michael M. had taken a set of black & white photos at his first Grateful Dead concert in May 1977 and then lost his camera for over 30 years. When his parents sold their house & were cleaning it out, he found his old camera in the attic which still had film in it & when he developed the pictures he discovered these rare photos of the Dead at the height of their career. Since he knew I was a fan, he shared a set of prints with me which I proceeded to cut up & create this montage for him with a lyric from the song ‘Dark Star’ in the center. It is truly a blast from the past!

We made a limitedition print of this image of which there are still some available.

The Original Collage remains in the collection of Michael & Roxanne Moskowitz.

This image is available as a limitedition offset print 16″ X 20″ It comes signed & dated.

Animalism, 2007 original collage 32” X 40”
“This is a collection of ‘every animal I could find on consumer packages & other printed materials’, which took me over 8 months to complete. This evolved from my original Noah’s Ark type concept. I thought it would be better to put one of each animal I could find rather that try to find two of each. One was hard enough! It was a fun project searching for all the animals and even more fun looking at them in this poster & trying to identify them! How many can you recognize? There are also 49 hidden animal messages within the collage to look for.” M A

This image is available as a limitedition offset print and Fine Art Print on Canvas or Rag paper.

No, 2008  “This was an idea that came to me in 2008. I always loved the story about how John Lennon & Yoko Ono met; that John had attended an art exhibition of Yoko’s and there was an interactive artwork where the viewer had to climb a ladder & then look through a magnifying glass at a tiny word written on the ceiling. That word was ‘Yes’ & I had the idea of spelling out the word as many times & with as many fonts as possible and then I put one tiny ‘No’ (which was very John Lennon-like) that I hid in the overall composition. This has become one of my most popular images. Can you find the ‘No’?”        M A

Map of the USA, 2008  “Inspired by Jasper Johns’ famous Map painting, I had the idea to use the materials I had been using for famous text and apply it to the idea of a Map. I put all the states, capitals, and other well known places in geographical order and worked on this 28 X 36” original work for close to 500 hours over a several month period. I have since made several other maps including the World, Manhattan, New York State, Long Island (where I grew up), Westchester County, NY (where I live now) & Pennsylvania, among others. A one thousand piece puzzle was made of this image that was in many stores all over the USA a few years back”  M A

All You Need is Love, 2008 “This lyric collage is a result of an in-depth study of the Beatles I made. I didn’t have to listen to all of their music (although I did!) to know this was one the defining lyrics of their immense body of work. It pretty much says it all. This is a limit edition Giclee print on paper that was printed in an edition of 49 for a show I had at a gallery in Red Bank, New Jersey.”  M A

Map of Manhattan, 2008 “After creating my first Map of the USA, which featured states, capitals & other well known cities & landmarks, I started on this 32” X 40” collage street Map of Manhattan which took me over 6 months to complete. It features streets, avenues, bridges, tunnels, museums, and sections of the city as well as other details. I never realized how many famous places there are in New York City! If you Google, “Michael Albert Map of Manhattan 2009”, you will find an article in the NY Times about me & this particular collage.” M A

The Ballad of Tony the Tiger 2008  Original Collage size 20” x 32”

“This Epic collage was created after I had collected every image of the iconic mascot of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes I could find for over a one year period of time.” MA

A limitedition fine art archival canvas is available 30″ X 48″ It comes with a museum stretch, signed & dated.

Mercy, 2010 “I created this 20” X 32” collage of the famous passage from Shakespeare’s play, ‘The Merchant of Venice’ when I found out that it was to be performed in NYC’s Shakespeare in the Park with Al Pacino. I was going to create this print & give them out for free to theater goers, but it ended up taking too long to finish & wasn’t completed in time. I printed it anyway & added it to my selection of Limitedition offset prints.” M A

Rainbow, 2011 “In 2011 I began creating a series of rainbows & spectrums of color by cutting pieces of various color from the consumer brand packages I had been working with & arranging them according to R-O-Y-G-B-I-V. Over the years I’ve developed several other what I call “Color-based themes” including Hearts, Flags, Flowers & Trees (or ‘Brandscapes’), Abstracts and depictions of things like fish (whales) & musical instruments (guitars) which are also on display here. This is a good example of one of my first ‘Rainbow’ collages.”  M A

Sunflowers, 2012 “This color based “Brandscape” collage is also made from the packages of famous consumer brand packages. You can see how I left a bunch of clues as to where the pieces may have come from. I was inspired by Warhol’s flowers which are not realistic & thought I would try to create landscapes & nature scenes in my own way using my medium of choice. FYI,  I also love the flowers of Georgia O’Keeffe, Claude Monet & Vincent Van Gogh!” M A

Woodstock, 2013

“This is the largest collage that I ever created at 40” X 60”. It is a depiction of the famous art & music festival that took place in the summer of 1969 in upstate New York. In the bottom left corner I put all the characters I found that were playing musical instruments to represent the stage area, then I collected close to 1,000 characters from all sorts of printed materials I collected & came across to represent the crowd of 500,000 that attended, and finally I wove lyrics from Joni Mitchell’s iconic song “Woodstock” & other text from the documentary about the festival throughout the collage.” M A

A rare limitedition print is available of this image  as well as a fine art print on archival canvas or rag paper.

The Exploded Rainbow, 2017

“I have been creating abstract collages for many years using the little bits & scraps of my cut & paste work to experiment with non-representational art. This collage was part of a recent series on small scale acid-free museum boards of different colors. The original of this dense & colorful abstraction is only 5” X 7”. It is an example of an idea I suggest in my traveling art program which I bring to schools, libraries & museums all over the world.” M A

A rare Limitedition offset print of this image is available for sale at The Shop.

Alphabet, 52718  Original Collage

This is one in  my series of Alphabet collages featuring a variety of fonts from iconic consumer brands.

The original collage is available for sale.

Cityscape #4 / Starry Night  This original collage was created in 2019 as part of a series of city skylines I created at the time.

It is available for purchase as a limitedition offset print as is the original work.

You Are What You crEATe, 2024  Original Collage

El Primo

Cityscape #2 / December 12, 2019