Our Story
The Oddities Flea Market began at Greenpoint’s Brooklyn Bazaar in 2017, a one-day show featuring 70 artists, dealers, and colleagues of Ryan Matthew Cohn and Regina M. Rossi. Neither anticipated the thousands of customers that attended, and the next year’s market became a two-day, ticketed affair. The Oddities Flea Market and its following have since expanded to four locations: New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Ryan and Regina select vendors and performers through an exclusive application process, providing international exposure while bringing together those who delight in the rare and macabre.
When not searching at home and abroad for the most rare and obscure artifacts, Ryan and Regina co-host Antiques and Their Afterlives, Atlas Obscura’s bi-monthly livestream that explores the histories of arcane objects. Ryan and Regina’s first book, The Witch’s Door: Oddities and Tales from the Esoteric to the Extreme, is a memoir that gives readers a tour of their lives, their collection, and how this subcultural movement began. Now available here.
The Co-founders
Ryan Matthew Cohn
CURATOR & CO-FOUNDER
@ryanmatthewcohn
Ryan Matthew Cohn is a fine artist and leading expert in the esoteric. Known for the “exploded skulls” that launched his career while co-hosting the Discovery Channel series Oddities (2010-14), Cohn creates commissioned works and installations, often using material from his own collection.
Ryan’s art has been acquired by private collectors and public institutions, including Exploded/Beauchene Human Skull (2012-14), now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Art and Design, New York. In November 2023, Ryan’s assemblage sculptures were exhibited at Seattle’s Roq La Rue gallery show “Mors et Anima,” and his Myths & Mysteries installation at the Armour Stiner Octagon House in Irvington, N.Y., which lasted two seasons.
Regina M. Rossi
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER & CO-FOUNDER
@reginamarierossi
Regina M. Rossi is a fine art and antiques collector whose business acumen propelled The Oddities Flea Market into the major event that it is today. For almost 20 years, Regina gained marketing experience with brands such as Betsey Johnson and Agent Provocateur.
After she and Ryan met through her purchase of a kapala, a ritual cup fashioned from a silver-decorated human skull, the couple sought a way to promote and share both their accumulated talents and connections.
While independent artists and markets garnered local attention, Regina’s idea to produce The Oddities Flea Market on a larger scale elevated it to a gathering that drew eyes worldwide, creating a community that grows with each passing year.