James Rizzi was born in Brooklyn, New York October 1950. James Rizzi studied Fine Arts at the University of Florida at Gainesville, and graduated in 1974. He began to experiment by combining painting, sculpture and printmaking in his senior year of college, and these experiments came up to be his famous 3D constructions that are now mostly associated with his name.

A typical Rizzi 3D print gets made throughout a multi-step process that starts with a hand colored drawing and a black and white duplicate that are sent to the printer, who returns several proofs. Then Rizzi and the printer collaborate on exact specifications and print two identical silkscreens for each final edition print. One of the prints has his elements cut (cutting is a delicate job that requires patience, a good eye and special instruments), so that they can be sticked to their twins in the other print with double-sided adhesive foam tape. The height at which the different pieces are mounted varies but it is edition-constant.

Rizzi's work is ment to have the freshness and vitality of children by using a primitive and childlike style just like some great artist of the twentieth century like Dubuffet, Miro of Klee did. The diversity and human variety from New York is clearly a reference in his work, where the streets and people are hilariously happy.

He has developed some big projects such as the design of the exterior of a Lufthansa Boeing 757 aircraft in celebration of their 40th anniversary in 1996, The Happy Rizzi House in the historical "Magniviertel" in Braunschweig in 1997, and, commissioned by the International Olympic Committee, he created an image commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the modern Olympic games.

Rizzi has been honored with solo shows in the United States, Europe and Asia, and his work has received much recognition all around the globe.