Nicholas Di Genova

Regardless of if they love it or hate it, a lot of people have something to say about Nicholas Di Genova’s art. His incredibly detailed, sometimes monstrous creatures are alternately fawned over and slammed. The Toronto-based artist doesn’t take the bad stuff to heart, though. He just keeps plugging along. At the moment, he’s hard at work on his first solo show for the Frederick Freiser Gallery in NYC, and he’s tinkering with a graphic novel that he promises will contain “lots of monsters, incest, and giant robot sex” though perhaps not in that order, and perhaps without his real name (understandably). I decided to talk to the man about his work, the media, and how we “discovered” him. (‘Cause the guy’s going to blow up, and when he does, I’m totally taking credit.)


Hey Nicholas. I love the pieces you sent us! Thanks for doing that.
Awesome. I’m glad they went over well. I always get a tad nervous sending over images.

You shouldn’t. They’re great. Speaking of which, how did you develop your style? It’s pretty interesting.
I’ve been into comics, cartoons, and nature documentaries since I was old enough to open my eyes, and into drawing since I could pick up a crayon. When I was in high school I caught on to certain artists like Barry McGee, Dalek, Doze Green, Jeff Soto…. and all of a sudden it was like ‘Whoa… You can draw like this and show it in galleries?’ And that’s pretty much what got me making art.

Worst thing anyone’s ever said (to your knowledge) about your work?
Heh. At every show I overhear a few people saying stuff like ‘That’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen’ or ‘I wouldn’t hang that on my wall if someone paid me!’ I find that stuff funny though. I’m pretty thick skinned. One time I was walking down the street with a finished canvas, and these two dudes saw me and followed me down the street yelling, ‘Hey, your shit sucks!’ That was a tad embarrassing… I was just relieved they didn’t jump me.

Jerks. They’re everywhere. So what about the best thing? Best compliment.
I’ve had a few moments that felt pretty good, two of my heroes are Dalek and Beck, I had the chance to meet them both over the last year, and it meant a lot to me when they said they appreciated what I was doing. The biggest compliment came two years ago though, on the opening night of my first solo show. My mom and dad drove up to see it, and my dad said it looked pretty good. He’s not much of a talker, so coming from him, that’s a pretty big compliment!

You’re not exactly established, but you’re already starting to get a lot of press. Why do you think that is?
To tell you the truth, I’m not sure. I guess for the same reasons I like the work – because it’s a chance to temporarily step out of reality and into another world. I was going over all of the work that I’ve done over the last few years, and my little biosphere contains over 1000 different species.

Is the whole “in the public eye” thing what you always wanted?
Not exactly. I have no idea what I want out of this… Just the opportunity to keep doing it and getting the chance to show it, I guess. Seeing my stuff in print feels pretty good though. I keep a copy of every review, interview and ad, and when I feel sort of worthless I read over them to cheer up. And they make my parents happy. Sometimes, when my mom reads them, she cries. I think that’s really cute.

Awwww. That is cute. You know, people keep asking how I “found you.” I used to baby-sit for a kid named Nicholas Genova, and I heard he’d become an artist. Then I saw your name somewhere and thought maybe he was you.
Hey, I think I’ve heard about this guy before. Something about a Nick Genova
going to OCAD …

Yeah. I think that’s him. Weird. Last time I saw him, he was into nature documentaries and creature-creatin’ too… Anyway. This story isn’t about me. SO. How do people tend to discover your work?
People seem to find out about my work in all sorts of ways: the web, my merch, a gallery, on the street. Some people have no choice but to see my work, cause I harass them on the Internet with images! Sometimes people find the wheat paste I put up on their store and track me down… that’s not so much fun.

You used to be a street artist?
Five or six years ago I used to be more involved in street art culture. I’d find abandoned furniture and stuff on the street, and draw spirits leaving the objects. For example: a fridge spirit floating away from an old fridge, or plant spirits crawling out of an abandoned garden…

And your web-name “mediumphobic” came out of that, right? That was your tag?
Actually, I used to write the name “medium”. I liked it cause I imagined myself as a sort of spiritual medium connecting our world to the ghost world. Sadly, mediumphobic only exists because medium.com was taken when I went to register for a domain name, and I liked the ring of mediumphobic better than something like mediumart or mediumrulez.

I dunno, mediumrulez sounds good to me. One last question: your work has been said to “speak to the giddy kid in us.” True?
It would be nice if it was… It certainly speaks to the giddy kid in me!

Nichola Di Genova’s Website

-Jen Selk
Jen Selk’s Website