"DocuMini" by MF Artist Angie Mason
Featured on Juxtapoz.com July 3, 2008
THE
VILLAGE VOICE
APRIL 2008
Sketch
in the City - The MF Gallery Episode
An
intimate look at the playfully violent mind
of artist Frank Russo. Frank brings us inside
his underground art hub, MF Gallery. Opened
by Frank and his lady Martina in New York’s
Lower East Side, the gallery showcases the
talents of other "lowbrow" artists
in this most obscene of art scenes. Watch
out for the appearance of DETHRACE, the thrash-metal
band from beyond the stars, as they do battle
with the most unnatural ZOMBIES this side
of 1986
(
THIS VIDEO WAS FEATURED ON JUXTAPOZ.COMMARCH
11, 2008 )
The
opening party for Martina Secondo Russo’s
debut solo exhibition, “Tattooed Limbs
and Other Oddities,” had all the typical
trappings of a gallery show — chatter,
cheer and free wine — but a second glance
at the artwork and the gallery space showed
more than a few quirks.
At
Tattoo Culture, the Williamsburg tattoo parlor
where Russo’s show is on display through
Jan. 11, the ink and needles were stashed away
for the evening, but party-goers, many colorfully
tattooed themselves, milled about and took in
Russo’s unconventional offerings: full
mannequins and two-dozen dismembered limbs that
the artist made with plywood and immaculately
“tattooed” with classic images like
skulls, pinup girls, bluebirds, roses and mermaids.
“They’re
a mishmash of all sorts of different images,”
said Russo, 27, who was born in Genoa, Italy,
and now lives in Bay Ridge. “Old school
tattoo designs are my favorite, but I also just
use other interesting images: Halloween decorations,
my own drawings, drawings from other artists
I like, found images.”
Shows
such as “Tattooed Limbs and Other Oddities”
are a staple at MF Gallery, the Lower East Side
space Russo and her husband Frank, a Red Hook
native, co-own. Inspired by their love of heavy
metal and horror movies, the couple curates
shows with titles like “Zombie Attack,”
“Freak Show” and “See You
in Hell.” The gallery also carries hand-printed
T-shirts and other small, affordable handmade
pieces; items that Russo said, “might
be more accessible to somebody who’s not
going to walk in and buy a $400 painting.”
Similarly,
the offbeat appeal, and lower price, of Russo’s
“severed limbs” draws young collectors
looking for a new type of art to collect. Tim
Kaminski, an art director who ventured to Williamsburg
from Croton-on-Hudson for the show, appreciated
the limbs’ price tags.
“I
like the tattooed woman, but I can’t afford
it, so I might get a hand or a foot,”
he said. “I’d rather go to a show
where I can actually purchase something. In
New York, where nobody has any space, it’s
compelling to buy smaller works of art. It’s
still a precious object.”
And the staff at Tattoo Culture agrees.
“You
see a lot of fine art in tattooing nowadays,
and as in Martina’s work, you see more
tattooing in fine art,” said Gene Coffey,
a resident artist at Tattoo Culture, who also
curates the shop’s art shows. “I
don’t think tattoos are accepted as art
in the art world; they’re too taboo. Our
goal is to show that there is a correlation
between tattooing and fine art.”
Russo’s
work clearly demonstrates that relationship.
In creating her “limbs,” she applies
training she received at CalArts in Valencia,
CA, cutting each form out of plywood with a
jigsaw, paints the skin tone in acrylic and
draws each elaborate tattoo design by hand with
enamel marker.
Her inspiration comes mostly from her interest
in tattoo design. Russo drew up some of her
own tat’s — she said she has “eight
or nine” — and although she’s
dabbled in actual tattooing, she said, “It
wasn’t for me. I’m not so much a
part of the culture but my artwork is.”
And
the artwork seems to draw in outsiders as well.
At her show’s Dec. 8 opening, people who
weren’t looking to purchase art still
streamed in, and seemed to appreciate Russo’s
down-to-earth perspective.
“It’s
more engaging than a regular gallery. It’s
not typical, not something you’d see in
a magazine,” said Kristina Musial, 24,
of Harlem.
Jennifer
Sellers, 26, of Weehawken, N.J., wandered in
off the street and liked what she saw. Sellers,
who has plenty of her own ink, identified with
the idea that whether painted on plywood or
permanently etched onto a person’s skin,
tattoos are more than just a design.
Said
Sellers, “They mean something.”
“Tattooed
Limbs And Other Oddities” will be on display
through Jan. 11 at Tattoo Culture Gallery (29
Roebling St. at North Fifth Street in Williamsburg).
For information, call (718) 218-6532 or visit
www.tattooculture.net.
"Zombies
Attack" Featured Article by DiDi Delicious
on NYROCK.com (Click image to view it)
THE
VILLAGE VOICE
APRIL 2007
BANG!
MAGAZINE
(TAIWAN) ISSUE NO. 95
THE
L MAGAZINE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER
2006
GRAND
ST. NEWS DECEMBER
2006
NYLON
MAGAZINE NEWSLETTER
NOVEMBER 10, 2006
HIPPER
MAGAZINE (TAIWAN)
ISSUE NO. 19
FROM
THE L MAGAZINE
AUGUST 2006
FROM
AM NEW YORK
MAY 2006
FROM
THE L MAGAZINE
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005
Friday
November 4, 2005
TOY
LOVERS, DELIGHT IN FRIGHTS
For the sinister child in
all of us, MF Gallery has put together a
collection of the most unique and downright
creepy toys for this year's Toy Show. Mass-produced
these are not - the figurines range from
lollipop-headed creatures with fangs to
grotesque masks and nail-engorged mannequins.
Tonight's opening party at 7 is free. 157
Rivington St. (917) 446-8681.
Daniel
Robert Epstein: How did the showing
at MF Gallery come about? Peter Bagge: Last year I was at
the Big Apple Con and Martina [Secondo] from the
gallery came up to me and asked if I wanted to do
a show. I think it was mostly because her husband
Frank [Russo] grew up reading Hate comics. I was
like “Yeah sure!” He’s involved
with all these people who do these punk music magazines.
It made me very nostalgic for the places I used
to have art shows at 25 years ago. It made me feel
like a kid again. DRE: So you don’t
do a lot of shows in New York? PB: I don’t do a lot of shows
at all, in fact this is my very first solo show.
Occasionally I will be in a group show but I do
that very reluctantly. It just sounded like a good
excuse to come back to New York because there are
always other things I can do here. I also have a
bunch of stuff coming out right now. There is the
Buddy Bradley doll which just came out and MF is
the first place to have it. The first issue of Apocalypse
Nerd and the Buddy does Seattle trade paperback
just came out too. READ
MORE..