Danny Malboeuf

In 2016, three paintings were featured in Buffalo Zine, with the editorial observation "There's something both sweet and incredibly perverse about Danny Malboeuf's paintings. Under the pseudonym KOLABOY, the North Carolina artist depicts a world in which young girls are free to engage in abstract acts of ritual fun with each other -- it feels almost like we shouldn't be looking." He is cited as an inspiration for the artist NED (Ned M. Stacey).

Malboeuf's outsider leanings and penchant for dark themes and forbidden mixtures can be disquieting or even controversial. "If you've never contemplated the odd, spellbinding paintings by Charlotte original Danny Malboeuf, now's your chance to catch up. An uneasy feeling mixed with awe at the artist's painterly skill is not unusual with these acrylics. Holy Water and Consecration of St. Joan both deliver a biting admixture of religion and sexuality." Another critique reads "This artist's idiosyncratic slice of surrealism, dark and Gothic, is imbued with a strong dose of high-techno metallica in a strange quasi-religious vein that incites uneasy thoughts. If Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft rose from the dead and co-wrote a series of stories – and Max Ernst collaborated with Dante Gabriel Rossetti using Giger's Alien as a prototype to illustrate these collaborative tales – the result might resemble Malboueuf's series of images. [...] Malboeuf's intensely symbolic paintings do occasionally depict a sunnier mood, [...] but more common is a decaying, bittersweet morbidity – futuristic pre-Rapahelite paintings corrupted by the forces of the darkside. There's a repellent attraction to this work that's compelling." On the academic front, Malboeuf's painting Holy Water is the subject of a Master's dissertation.

Early in 2011, Malboeuf published an illustrated book, Saestralle – A Tale of the North, which presents a poetic legend imagined in the Arctic region. He has since published other illustrated books which are suitable for young readers.

Malboeuf has also provided two invited pieces for the Pornsaints website; his art was included in their 2008 exhibition at A&D Gallery in central London, and their 2010 exhibition at the Birdhouse Gallery in Austin, Texas. Firebird was chosen to illustrate the exhibition review in the Austin Chronicle; as arts critic Wayne Brenner observed, "[M]ost of the depictions of saintly pornstars are depictions of women. Which is fine by this (admittedly biased) reviewer ... especially when the artwork is as gorgeous as Danny Malboeuf's finely detailed and cyberpunky Firebird painting". Also in 2010, Malboeuf was described as "a Surrealist for our times" in a review for The 405, a music and culture magazine. The October 2010 issue of visual arts magazine n-sphere featured Malboeuf's art on the cover and in the lead article, accompanied by a 26-work exhibition in The Spheres guest gallery. A positive review of Malboeuf's Statesville exhibition in early 2014 noted the artist's reclusive nature and prolific output, estimated at 6000 paintings. Malboeuf's work was also exhibited internationally in the Endangered Visions show at ManilArt 2014 in the Philippines.

As well as featuring Malboeuf's art in 2006, OLOGY Magazine also showcased some of his writing. Buffalo Zine did likewise in 2016.

Danny Malboeuf (born 1960) is a visual artist and musician from Statesville, North Carolina. As kolaboy he is a member of the breedArt collective and a Senior Member of DeviantArt, where four of his paintings have received the site's top award. His musical project is Cowgirl in the Snow.