The people behind the paintings

Meet the
Artists

Every work on MAD Studios comes from a real person with a practice, a point of view, and a reason for making. These are some of them.

Material texture

Platform founder · Featured artist

Melissa Quintero

74

Works

31

Collectors

14

Countries

MAD Studios

Founder · Architect · Collectible Designer

Melissa Quintero

Bogotá · London · Miami

ArchitectureObject DesignSpatial ArtSculpture

MAD Studios is a multidisciplinary design practice founded by architect Melissa Quintero.

The studio explores material presence, spatial emotion, and the relationship between nature and form.

Each work is part of an evolving body of collectible pieces that bridge architecture, art, and sculptural object design — created for collectors who value intention, depth, and material integrity.

"I am not interested in the decorative. I am interested in the necessary — in objects that hold their ground in a room and ask something of the person looking."

Melissa studied architecture at the Universidad de los Andes before completing her postgraduate work at the Architectural Association in London. She spent years working across cultural institutions in Europe and South America before founding MAD Studios in 2016.

Her practice resists easy categorisation. Furniture that thinks like buildings. Objects that feel like landscapes. Paintings that carry the logic of construction drawings. Every piece is made slowly, with intention, from materials chosen for what they say as much as what they do.

MAD Studios work 1

Collectible Objects · 2024

MAD Studios work 2

Architectural Models · 2023

The community

Independent artists,
extraordinary work.

Browse all 4,200+ works →
Mara Bellini
Oil Painting

Mara Bellini

Milan, Italy

Abstract Expressionism

Working from a clifftop studio on the Ligurian coast, Mara builds large-format oils with palette knives and her bare hands. Her work begins as landscape and ends as pure emotion — layered cadmium, burnt sienna, and prussian blue pushed until the original subject dissolves.

OilLarge FormatAbstract

142

Works

87

Sold

'21

Joined

Theo Nakamura
Acrylic & Print

Theo Nakamura

Kyoto · Amsterdam

Contemporary Minimalism

Theo's practice moves between silence and riot. Trained in printmaking in Kyoto, he now works from a converted canal warehouse in Amsterdam, building acrylic canvases that oscillate between monastic restraint and chromatic explosion.

AcrylicContemporaryMinimalist

38

Works

29

Sold

'22

Joined

Sofia Okonkwo
Oil on Board

Sofia Okonkwo

Lagos · London

Post-colonial Figurative

Sofia's large oils carry the weight of memory and migration. Her palette — deep ochres, scarlet, colonial white — is unmistakably hers. She paints figures that hold their own authority in the frame, surrounded by abstracted domestic space.

OilFigurativeLarge Format

61

Works

54

Sold

'20

Joined

Jens Kowalski
Watercolour

Jens Kowalski

Gdańsk · Vienna

Luminous Field Painting

Jens is a patient colourist. He builds wash upon wash until he reaches a luminosity that feels almost backlit — not illustrative, not decorative, but purely about the relationship between light and paper. His small-format studies sell within hours of listing.

WatercolourExpressionistSmall Format

95

Works

80

Sold

'19

Joined

Léa Morin
Mixed Media

Léa Morin

Lyon · Marseille

Material Collage

Léa tears, layers, and burns. Her mixed-media works incorporate found paper, encaustic wax, raw pigment, and burnt wood into surfaces that reward prolonged looking. She resists the clean and the polished — her work is deliberately difficult to photograph.

Mixed MediaStatementTextural

47

Works

38

Sold

'21

Joined

Dan Erlich
Oil & Acrylic

Dan Erlich

Tel Aviv · Berlin

Geometric Abstraction

Dan came to painting through architecture. His canvases feel engineered — precise geometric fields interrupted by visceral colour decisions that seem to defy the logic that preceded them. He works slowly: typically four or five finished pieces a year.

OilGeometricContemporary

29

Works

22

Sold

'23

Joined

Concrete texture

Sell on MAD Studios

Your work deserves
the right collectors.

0%

Commission on your first sale

We take nothing until you've found your footing.

15%

Platform fee thereafter

Covering packaging, insurance, customer support, and payment processing.

38

Countries reached

Your work can ship anywhere in the world, fully insured.

100%

Yours to price

You set the price. Always. We never negotiate on your behalf without asking.

01

Apply in 5 minutes

Tell us about your practice, upload three examples of your work. We review every application personally — usually within 48 hours.

02

List your paintings

Write your story, set your price, and upload high-resolution images. Your first listing goes live immediately on approval.

03

We handle the rest

From packaging guidance to payment processing, international shipping, and collector support — MAD Studios takes care of the logistics so you can focus on painting.

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