El Jefe Painting

Demarcus McGaughey, a Texas native and New York-based mixed media artist, passionately captures the beauty, strength, and vibrancy of people of color. Inspired by his mother as a child, he sharpened his artistic talents by coloring within the lines of her tracings. Eventually, he tapped into his storehouse of magic that pushed him to color outside the lines and chart an artistic path of his own.  McGaughey specializes in a style that combines painting, photography, mixed media, and graphic design. This elixir of artistic elements stems from his fruitful stint in corporate advertising and graphic design. Post undergrad, he licensed his time and talents to ad agencies and corporations as a freelance designer. Since then, he’s developed a mastery of graphics, product development, branding, and brand coaching.  In the early days of his career, he found graphics to be the ideal catalyst to tell stories for other people. But it was through painting that he discovered an avenue to tell stories, his way. His vibrant portraits capture elements of his world travels, his family, and his community. Each painting, a love letter to the world, declaring, “I see you and I hear you.”  Behind his art, resides a lifelong fascination with human psychology. McGaughey has always been intrigued by the mind, especially the stories people tell themselves. As a result, in his art he assumes a narrator role—telling heroic stories of his subject’s self-actualization and self-determination. As a certified life coach, he passionately empowers his coaching community that life is what you create it to be. His portraiture work reveals triumphant tales of African American subjects who have manifested their destiny with a particular focus on the eyes, the window to the soul.  McGaughey also pays homage to cultural influences with elements of pop art, mass media, comic books, and advertising in his pieces. Inspired by Barkley Hendricks, who famously painted Black people in all their coolness, McGaughey portrays his people in a larger-than-life display. Drawing inspiration from Andy Warhol’s acclaimed artistry in pop art and advertising along with Kehinde Wiley’s massive masterpieces, McGaughey’s work exudes an undeniable flow.  Throughout his 20-year art career, McGaughey has worked with prestigious brands and organizations, including Beyoncé Knowles Carter and beverage giant Dr. Pepper.