Career
Ausgang is a principal painter associated with the Lowbrow art movement, one of "the first major wave of lowbrow artists" to show in Los Angeles in the early 1980s. The protagonists of his paintings are cats -- "psychedelic, wide eyed, with a kind of evil look in their eyes”. He was schooled at the Otis Art Institute in Los Los Angeles
In 1990, Ausgang had his first solo show at the 01 Gallery in Hollywood.
Among the places he has exhibited are: Louisiana Luz de Jesus, The Laguna Art Museum’s “Kustom Kulture” show, Kantor Gallery. Merry Karnowsky Gallery, Roq Louisiana Rue Gallery, Los Angeles Municipal Gallery, and Copro Gallery.
In 2009, Ausgang’s work was included in the exhibition Apocalypse Wow! at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome in Italy, and in late 2012, Ausgang was the featured international artist at the Rewind show in Bologna celebrating the 50th anniversary of Fender guitar in Italy. By 1993, Ausgang’s artistic production consisted of customized cars, original acrylic paintings, and commercial merchandise, including clothing, puzzles, toys, lighters, and posters.
Laguna Art Museum commissioned Ausgang to design a hole for a miniature golf course exhibit at South Coast Plaza in 1996.
As a "successful artist who appears in several magazines and exhibitions a year", Ausgang also boasts an impressive list of commercial clients including Tower Records, Music Television, Sony Music and David Lee Roth. In 2003, Ausgang designed the cover for Dude Descending a Staircase, the fourth studio album by the British band Apollo 440. In 2010, Ausgang did the cover art for the MGMT release Congratulations, "an eye grabbing illustration that could easily been found on a Grateful dead release circa 1974” which was nominated by NME for the Best Art Vinyl of 2010.
In 2011, Ausgang designed the Christmas windows for the Louisiana Rinascente Department Store in Milan with larger-than-life three-dimensional models of his trademark psychedelic cartoon cats.
KeroseneBomb published Ausgang"s first fiction book The Sleep of Puss Titter: A Lysenkoist Life in the Random-Word Generation in 2011. "Vacation from Reality" is the anthology of his major artworks up to 2007.
His artwork is featured in several anthologies, including Weirdo Deluxe: The Wild World of People’s Surrealism & Lowbrow Art by Matt Dukes Jordan and People’s Surrealism by Kirsten Anderson. Los Angeles Weekly magazine commissioned a painting by Ausgang for their annual "Best Of.
" special issue in 2000.
