About

 

Matthew Gallo, the artist behind New Yuk City, creates a world where grotesque urban wildlife reigns supreme, and the membrane between a human and a pest dissolves. Gallo uses fine-art, waste, and pattern-making to deconstruct hierarchies imagined by humans. Using the archetypes of lost pets, invasive insects, and even microscopic cultures, he plays with the lust and lore of New York City and all its inhabitants.

As a New Yorker, Gallo twists metropolis mythology through the tunnels of New Yuk City, a place that exists between conscious comedy and subconscious disgust. It is from here that Gallo digs into inorganic, trans-species waste, up-cycling actual garbage into art for adorning a wall, or letting insectoid patterns infest a slow-fashion collection. All of New Yuk City's pieces start as handcrafted art from Gallo's home studio in Brooklyn, which are then sold as-is or digitized to print on clothing, footwear, and even home goods.

After a decade of designing in the New York ad world and entertainment biz, Gallo's work spans brands like Nickelodeon, 21st Century Fox, Microsoft, and Lego. He found the rubble of New Yuk City in 2021 through a personal exploration, and from it has since invited humans to confront distorted reflections of a trans-species identity. The feline, feathered, or six-legged neighbors in cityscapes become avatars of human behavior, mixing humor and horror into one unending question: how do life-forms stay alive in a place like New Yuk City?