Condo studied Art History and Music Theory at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, where his interest in European painting became an important foundation for his later work. After moving to New York, he became part of the city's vibrant art scene and briefly worked as a printer for Andy Warhol. His early years in New York brought him into contact with artists and movements that would shape the direction of contemporary painting in the decades that followed.

In the 1980s, Condo developed what he called "Artificial Realism", a way of combining the visual languages of art history with invented imagery and contemporary experience. His paintings often bring together references to Old Master painting, Cubism, Rococo, Baroque portraiture, American Pop Art and other historical traditions, transforming them into something distinctly his own.

The human figure sits at the centre of much of Condo's work. Rather than depicting identifiable individuals, he creates imaginary characters whose fragmented faces and exaggerated features become vehicles for psychological states. A single figure can appear simultaneously humorous, unsettling, elegant and vulnerable. This tension between opposing emotions has become one of the defining qualities of his practice.

Today, George Condo remains one of the defining figures in contemporary American painting, continuing to use the language of art history as a starting point for creating psychologically charged and unmistakably personal images.