Oddities Flea Market (US)

Time and time again, Circus Living has featured artists who create morbid or macabre artwork but what about the event organizers who work hard to promote these artists?

I thought it was about time event organizers who promote the artists who fit this type of niche - macabre and morbid art - are also featured. For Circus Living's 1st morbid art event feature, organizers Ryan Matthew Cohn & wife Regina Marie Cohn are interviewed.

I think a lot of people have an interest and fascination with the unknown and unusual, some choose to express that interest through collecting. It tends to get boring collecting what everybody else has or possess. This often leads to delve deeper into what is out there, especially in the collecting sphere.

For oddity collectors interested in the Oddities Flea Market based in New York, Ryan Matthew Cohn provides a glimpse of what to expect when you attend the event.

For travellers in New York catching one of the Oddities Flea Market's events and looking for other unique attractions to visit, Ryan suggests several unique places and events.

For vendors looking to exhibit their macabre artworks at one of the Oddities Flea Market's events, Vendor submission info is also provided in this page to help you get started.

The "Oddities Flea Market" started due to a huge interest in "Oddities" but with a lack of establishments to purchase & sell items having to do with the genre. Believe it or not, NYC/Brooklyn is very limited in the "oddities" department despite the fact that there are a plethora of sellers who offer fantastic and unique items. Many of the antique shops and flea markets that I frequented as a teenager are long gone due to the incredibly high rent and new real estate developments which forced many small businesses and flea markets to close. It was our intention to create a space for all of the great local and out of town vendors that we know and put them into one venue. It's a unique platform for artists, dealers, and purveyors of hard to find antiques and unique items. Its become a gigantic community of people who all share the same interests. In addition, customers now have the opportunity to visit a "one stop shop" for everything from Victorian taxidermy, mourning jewelry, skulls, natural history ephemera, early medical tools as well as jewelry, hand made one of a kind objects and even photography and original art!

I think a lot of people have an interest and fascination with the unknown and unusual, some choose to express that interest through collecting. It tends to get boring collecting what everybody else has or possess. This often leads to delve deeper into what is out there, especially in the collecting sphere. The genre of "Oddities" has existed for centuries and by all classes of people. Many of us are just carrying on that tradition. "Cabinets Of Curiosities" developed from people's travels and exploits. Through collecting, it was a way to remember where you have been and different elements of your life that you would immortalize through objects. Very much like how tattoos tell one's story through artwork. It is also exciting to discover something that perhaps nobody else possesses. It's not like you can go out to your local mall and buy a cat skeleton and a shrunken head. These objects tell a story.

Freeman and Fugate Oddities

Our Flea features 65+ vendors. We are very strategic in how we choose and place everybody. We showcase as many mediums within the genre of "Oddities" and we try to get the most talented folks that we know in the business. We always urge our vendors to bring a lot of variety in product as items tend to sell quickly (we have had artists sell out of their entire booths)! This event is a really great opportunity to meet an incredibly wide-ranging & diverse group of like minded people all housed in one room venue. We have many artists who received custom orders from customers who wanted limited one of a kind works. Our event is a great place for serious (and novice) collectors to find a huge variety of dealers. It's such a broad range that you just never know what you are going to find. Because this is a two day event, vendors often bring different items each day. Also, some vendors are only coming one of the two days. Make sure to check the event page to make sure you don't miss anybody!

We partner with Atlas Obscura on this event so they always post the "Oddities Flea Market" on their website. They also sell our VIP tickets through their site which grant customers early access (from 11am-12) into the market before the general public. The VIP ticket price is $20 and there are a limited number available per day. General admission is $5 and opens to the public at 12-noon.

I was going to suggest going on Atlas Obscura as many of my suggestions are likely on their site. However I must mention "House of Wax".

I am the curator and co-owner of a truly unique bar called "House of Wax" located in Downtown Brooklyn. The bar is designed around a 19th century medical wax museum from Germany that we brought to the US two years ago. We filled the Victorian themed space with wax models of medical deformities, fetal abnormalities, various "people's from around the world" and diseases, many of which focus on the genitals (the stage houses all of genital cross-sections). We also house three anatomical full- bodied "venuses" displayed in glass sarcophagi. It's like being in a Victorian medical museum that you can drink delicious cocktails and hang out all night! More information about the bar as well as images can be seen at the House of Wax's website .

Because this is a highly curated event, vendors are invited to participate in the market by Regina and myself. However, we love hearing from new vendors interested in vending that we may be unaware of. New vendors can email photos, bio, and links of their work to odditiesflea@gmail.com.

Evan Michelson of Obscura Antiques

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