About

Steve Marcus has been creating artwork for popular and unpopular culture for over 26 years mostly from in his NYC Lower East Side studio. He’s contributed works that have appeared on 5 continents in print, fashion & broadcast media & has been viewed by millions. 

He received honors and awards from the American Society of Illustrators, has been recognized as one of the 500 most influential outsiders in The United States by Future 500, has several works in the permanent collection of the Oakland Museum of California and private collections of art lovers in the United States and Abroad. He's shown multiple times in Miami at Art Basel and collaborated with Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary, Richard Stratton, Sid Kaplan and Miguel Pinero’s Estate. In 2016 and 2017, he created a series of fine art prints based on a rare and obscure responsa between the great American Novelist, Norman Mailer and The New York Times Best Selling Author and philosopher, Martin Buber with the Mailer Estate. In 2018 he has been creating a large body of work for a solo exhibition at the Jewish Museum of Florida in Spring of 2019.

He co-wrote & hand drew art for the mockumentary "The After Party, The Last Party 3" in 2011 which was an officially selected to be shown in 11 international film festivals, winning 4 of them, and his animated short film, "Three Thug Mice”, now a street legend classic, (2008-2009) captured a global underground audience of millions which featured voice overs by over 80 cult celebrities and was an officially selected to be shown in 12 international film festivals winning 7 of those festivals in diverse categories.

The animations Steve created for “Jails Hospitals and Hip Hop” was featured in, “Flash Frames”, a coffee table book (Watson Guptil) showcasing the pioneers of flash animation. His mind-bending animations for The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ (RHCP) Californication Tour was awarded best animation created with Adobe & Mac products by Adobe and Mac themselves and was shown on The RHCP world tour including their performance at Radio City Music Hall during the MTV Music Awards, as well as the opening at the Experimental Music Project Museum designed by Frank Gerry. 

He created art for High Times Magazine and the infamous Cannabis Cup, MTV, The Cartoon Network, Rolling Stone Magazine, Nickelodeon, Ecko Unlimited, Noggin, The New York Times, Esquire, Art Forum, Time Out, Random House, Conde Nast Publications and the world renowned Filmore in San Francisco.  

His love of music brought him to Cuba where co-founded Papaya Records and produced The Cuban Hip Hop All-Stars in Havana at Abdala Studios. This compilation of Havana’s Rap Groups was nominated for a Latin Grammy, and Time Magazine and The New York Times wrote of its influence on a generation of Cubaphiles. Steve’s historic adventure is one of the cultural projects scholars pinpointed as instrumental in Cuba’s current political and social changes and in 2016, Duke University Press published, "Negro Yo Soy" and The University of Texas published, "Cuban Underground Hip Hop - Black Thoughts, Black Revolution, Black Modernity" which analyzes The Cuban Hip Hop All Stars, Steve’s artwork and it cultural and historical contribution and is currently being used in the curriculums at several state Universities.

Steve Marcus being a well-hidden underground Lower East Side treasure for over two decades, and having been acknowledged as one of the most culturally influential residents in, "Jews, The People's History of the Lower East Side" but it was finally in 2010 that Steve began Studying Torah at Mesivta Tifereth Jerusalem, Reb Moshe Feinstein z’l world renowned yeshiva located in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. After a few years of daily Torah and Talmud learning under the guidance of esteemed Rabbis, Steve was blessed with the opportunity in 2013 to create a 4' x 2' stained glass for the Aron Ha'Kodesh installed in the Beit Medresh at Mesivta Tifereth Jerusalem.