#madgallerynyc

A few weeks back I had the pleasure of attending another Mad Gallery NYC event hosted by Marcus Allen. Mad Gallery events happen every few months within the year. It is an event where undiscovered artists get to showcase their works to a group of art aficionados and collectors. Speaking with Marcus Allen his quotas are usually met where several artists pieces are sold within the night. It doesn’t surprise me since the artists that showcase are pretty amazing and diverse. Many are self-taught and are experiencing their first show with Marcus. I commend him for giving artists the opportunity that he does. Ladies and gentlemen I introduce you to the artists of Mad Gallery.

I want to start with the show stopper and it was done by Liza Feurtado. A self-taught artist that just began painting two years ago. Talking to Liza I could tell she is a quirky cool chick very much involved in the artsy world. What made her pieces so striking is the obvious and that was the scale and the technicality of them. She received Instagram fame with one of her pieces that was oozing honey down a subject face “Honey Work”. The details that she implements into her pieces help push her pieces to have a very photo realistic final result.

  The other artist was Maeva Fouche another self-taught artist that is not afraid of the past or color. She creates cool retro looking pieces that are vibrant with color and clean design. My favorite pieces of hers was a custom clock and boomboxes and her Jimi Hendrix portrait. I personally think she undersold her pieces. She has an amazing aesthetic and I expect to definitely bump into her again.

  A very interesting concept was this Yarn Art created by Fresco. I have never seen anything like it done at an art show and I was immediately drawn to it and spent most of the evening tracking him down so I could discuss this piece. This young artist was calm and cool and I think his personality suited the patience it must take to deal with yarn. I thought they were interesting not only because it was yarn but also because it was an expressionist use of yarn which I thought was far more refreshing than him doing some granny loom work but on a canvas frame. I hope to see him continue this series.

Akomics Art another artist who wasn’t afraid of technicalities or color. His collection showing African American pride and culture was absolutely beautiful and vibrant. His detail was so exquisite his pieces seemed to come to life. My favorite piece of his was the one who depicted 4 young boys carrying machine guns. Staring aggressively towards the viewers in alpha stance. This piece strong political statement did not go unnoticed to what is currently occurring in Africa and the children soldiers.

          Yanira Garcia a quiet young lady with a soft presence about herself was far off in a corner but I got drawn to her pieces because of the pale colorful undertones that were screaming sexual chaos and candor from across the room. I wanted to get closer. Once I did I saw the beginnings of the Mad Gallery’s erotic vibe to this gathering of artists. Yanira did a study on her bum and what a nice bum it was. In theory her collection was a homage to what we deal with society today. Our embarrassing undulated narcissistic tendencies in social media. Where fame has out raced class and bum shots are all over the internet. I really liked her collection. It reminded me of a rainy day but a good one. The one that makes you want to stroll out the house and catch a movie or do some light shopping and a department store just for the heck of it or take a visit to a coffee shop to sip on coffee and read a good book.

    As we start merging into the other artists pieces I noticed how the mood immediately changed into something more dark, creepy and imaginative. Dysmorphia by Bethany Grabert was an immediate eye catcher because it gave the flip side of a more organic eroticism. Human nature and it’s growths good and bad young and old. Her collaboration with Mike Shane in the “Reliquary Series” really played on the idea of organics. Using natural materials such old bark wood and showing life growing out them in my opinion was beautiful poetic prose.

And moving away from that I jump back into Alice Wonderland and meet the quirky young trained but naïve hipster Samantha Camarro also known as Sam Cam who was new to the art show scene. She had her eyes wide open she was super cool and down to earth with a dash of naiveté which only was in the forefront because of her eagerness to learn and participate in more art shows. Her collections colors were splashing off the canvases in this fruit like melody. Her collection was pointing at the social media hype of young women and how exposing oneself attracts a lot of attention. My favorite piece from her collection was “ Im Not Sure”.

The next artist Mich Monegro reminded me of that kid in the dark room. The one who wore flannel shirts and tortoise rimmed classes in a red lit room with sleeves rolled up to the elbow dipping photo paper into solutions for hours and just getting high off the adrenaline of waiting to see the image appear. This young man has an interesting point of view. His perspectives seem to be like the fly on the wall. I found his shots mysterious and deeply romanticizing a dark underbelly that lured your eyes in. What I did also get about his pieces was that he has an adventurous streak. He is not afraid to cross the impossible to get a dope clean shot. I got to tell him to check out my post I did awhile back on abandoned places to shoot in. I know for sure he would definitely put that post to cool use.

  I am going to skip the artist that follows Mich because I want to save him for last. Let me talk about this artist that her collection would make any mother blush. Her name is Nylsha Feliciano. She definitely took I am female hear me roar to a completely different level with the Venus fly trap of a vagina in the center of her collection. I am just kidding. Her collection was interesting and she really embraced the concept of sexuality between two female forms. Her images depicted very vivid sexual actions where the focus was painted and the other parts were intentionally left unfinished or lack of detail. This style of hers  only drew your eyes to what was happening in the scenes which involved a lot of secretions and cunnilingus . I asked her if she was familiar with Georgia O’Keefe since Georgia is known for her flowers that are supposed to subtly be relative to the female vagina. I asked because I was wondering if her collection was more along the approach of a vagina is a vagina stop trying to make it a flower or was she modernizing the concept of the fragility of the female organ, showing its beauty, it’s strength and power to human life and nature. As mentioned before the piece that really caught your eye was the vagina protruding 3D out of some anonymous spread eagled legs that it completely made it hard to pry your eyes away from it and look at anything else she did. But once you did pry your eyes away you saw that the point of her pieces were to point out the fact that there are rich vaginas, destroyed vaginas, loved vaginas, and free vaginas. As I kept mulling it over I was like ok cool digging it.

Now moving forward to last but not least Philly graffiti artist John Oz aka Semet. Wowzers this graffiti writer really impressed me. 1) He used a style I haven’t seen out of a textbook in a looooonnggg time and 2) I have never seen a graffiti writer use it. So he hit two home runs. I loved his sweet nervous demeanor and his gratefulness to be a part of the show and thankful me and @whoisaboogie attended the show to see his work. It was cute. Anyways this artist has been in the game for yeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrs tagging graffiti through NYC and Philly since the 80’s. He was trained in art school which is why he was able to collaborate cubism (A style created by Picaso and Georges Braque in the late 19th Century )and graffiti. I was floored I thought that was the coolest thing that I have seen done by a graffiti writer. His colors also would flow from muted fresco style to colorful rainbow. However, due to certain life and death circumstances he didn’t get to finish school to obtain his degree. Regardless of those facts he kept on pushing through and working on his craft and he was able to do his first artshow at Mad Gallery if I am correct. He was exhausted driving all the way from Philly into the city and having to do it all over again. However, it was worth it for him since we got to meet and he is one of the new featured artists for the 2016 W.A.R. show.

So Inclusion ladies and gentlemen if you see any advertisements for the Mad Gallery show make sure you go and check it out because you definitely see some cool art and meet cool artists too. It’s a chilled ass vibe and the host Marcus Allen himself is an artist who showcases his art work but this time I just wanted to shine on his featured artists this time around and his brand. So to stay updated please follow the social media links below.

  www.madgallerynyc.com

www.instagram.com/madgallerynyc