RAMA MAYO
Rama Mayo is a self-taught painter, collector, and archivist based in the Hudson Valley, New York. He spent thirty-five years sitting near artists making things, running a gallery, collecting what he loved, and eventually making things himself, starting with band logos and record covers, and later bricolage and paintings. “Level 50,” opening October 2026 at Galerie Zoë in Hudson, New York, is his first exhibition, pairing his own work with decades of personal archive and new pieces from longtime friends and collaborators.
Artist Statement
I went to Yale. To park for free, then walk across the street and mosh to the bands on my punk label, the one I started in high school and kept running while I was in college in Boston. Yale just happened to have the better parking lot for a New Haven show.
My great-grandfather was a sign painter. I only found that out recently, decades after I'd already been painting my own, words, tickets, packaging, whatever caught my eye, with no idea where the instinct came from. Turns out I was just doing the family business badly, on my own timeline, for free.
What I loved as a kid still runs the show, things that cost a quarter from a vending machine or came from a screen, back when TV was my babysitter. While my friends wanted to be firefighters or doctors, I wanted to be a ninja. I'd like to formally announce that this remains on the table.
I never took an art class, but I got to sit near artists making things for the past thirty-five years. Somewhere in there, I started making things too, starting with band logos and record covers, eventually bricolage and paintings.