NYAB Event - Mark DeMaio “Priests, Stilts, Clowns & Freaks”

Mark DeMaio “Priests, Stilts, Clowns & Freaks”

Sacred Gallery

This event has ended.

DeMaio masterfully limns the boundaries as only he can between dream and nightmare, where fabled iconography and burlesque alchemize into a virtual, acid-laced, Lewis Carroll head-trip. According to the artist, this show, more than any other is his most personal and truly represents his life and growth as an artist over the last 25 years. Along with several new works created over the last year, this exhibition will feature paintings DeMaio has refused to sell or even show. “I’m at a crossroad in my life. I’m facing the uncomfortable fate of having to leave my home/studio of the last couple of decades, a place where I’ve always felt so secure and safe to create. I’ve surrounded myself with some of my favorite pieces, refusing to show them, others I’ve refused to sell. The time has come for me to start a new chapter in life and I can’t think of a better way to face the future than release (some) of the past. I’m very proud to show this work at Sacred Gallery NYC. It makes sense to bring them to the public at SGNY, it’s the right place.”

SACRED GALLERY NY is very excited to have the chance to show this collection. The new work is very much in keeping with DeMaio’s signature use of bold colors that bring to life the insane characters and images we’ve come to expect and love from the artist. The majority of the paintings (all executed in oil) hearken back to the great Surrealist masterworks and “degenerate art” of the German Expressionists, evoking Dali, Mirò, Bacon, and Kirchner in their exotic figurations, contorted physiognomies, opaque textures, and vibrant palette. Of the new pieces, “PLANT LIFE, HAPPY NEW YEAR, WHO INVENTED THE TWINS, and PLEASE REMAIN CALM” immediately make you cringe and smile while they burn their way into your brain. They are as vivid and disturbing as anything DeMaio has ever created.

Of the special works that Mark has decided to finally show, “POOR EUGENE” is the most mesmerizing. The image of a lone soul seated at a table with a chunk of birthday cake with one candle burning in it, is haunting. DeMaio insists it is the most powerful painting he’s ever done, upon viewing one might agree. Painted in the 90’s this work holds a special place in his heart. He has simply refused to sell it. Collectors of his work from around the world have been trying to purchase “POOR EUGENE” for over 20 years. There is no guarantee that he’ll part with it at this show but at least it’s going to be seen, and DeMaio seems optimistic that he’ll be able to let it go. The gallery is eager to hang this show, especially “POOR EUGENE”, there is a lot of buzz about a painting many have heard about and very few have seen.

In the prolific amount of work shown in “PRIESTS, STILTS, CLOWNS AND FREAKS”, DeMaio reaffirms his fascination with the dark and macabre, plucking ghosts, goblins, harlequins, carnival fools, and birds of paradise from their otherwise fairy-tale realm and ascribing them ironic, non sequitur physiological qualities that reflect the dark, sinister portals of the unconscious. In his continual search for manifestations of the sublime, DeMaio has intuited subjects that blur the lines between parody and allegory, dressing a series of demonic apparitions in bright costumes and fetishistic paraphernalia, set against a nondescript, crepuscular backdrop. To this end, he not only subverts traditional make-believe, but also shows the viewer how the fantastic and benign can be downright harrowing. In the undulating curves of form, attenuated limbs, and perspectival distortions, DeMaio offers up an acutely personal account of storybook lore run amok.