One of Deep Ellum’s Most Cherished Pillars of Art Turns 20

You won’t be able to see it coming, and there’s no telling how long it lasts, but every now and then, Deep Ellum is able to coalesce the chorus of creativity into a single hum, reminding us precisely why it’s still as special as it’s always been. 

On a random Monday afternoon in October, it seems like one of those days. Jason Janik is holding court inside of Kettle Art Gallery, where he’s set up his NTX100 art project for an afternoon shoot. For a few hours, the gallery is a revolving door of familiar local faces and strangers pulled off the street to be photographed and interviewed.

Next door at Taboo Tattoos, Wayside Motel frontman Cable Danielle gets word of Janik’s project and peers in through the windows — he’ll be interviewed next. Photographer Scott Mank attempts to capture as much of the streetside scene as possible on a sleek black Nikon. 

But what he can’t capture, and what words can’t do justice to, either, is that this kaleidoscope of Dallas creativity all seems to be orbiting around the same man, Frank Campagna. Even if you don’t know him, you’ve almost certainly seen his work. The Kettle Art Gallery owner, muralist, concert promoter and Dallas arts tastemaker has maintained a finger on the pulse of the city’s arts scene throughout generations of artists traveling through the city. 

On the Monday we catch up with him, Campagna’s proclivity to the pulse is no different. It seems like everyone passing through makes time for a stop, a smoke, a handshake or a small tribute to the king of Deep Ellum, who saw a vision for an arts district before anyone knew it was coming.

“I remember getting my radiator fixed across the street,” he says at Kettle’s Main St. location. “There was nothing down here.”

That didn’t last long. Campagna, as much an organizer as an artist, began throwing DIY punk shows inside industrial buildings and old car shops. First, it was a band called the Nervebreakers, then larger acts like the Dead Kennedys, all falling in and around Campagna’s orbit as Deep Ellum blossomed into the cutting-edge destination for new music. 

And then came the artwork. Once you start looking for it, you’ll notice Campagna’s signature at the bottom of murals all over town. Back in the day, you’d see it on small flyers, promoting his own shows or at $35 a pop for talent agents like Miles and Ian Copeland, whose brother Stewart was the founding drummer of The Police.

By 2005, it was time for Campagna to have a permanent home in Deep Ellum. The Kettle Art Gallery was born, conceptualized as a locally focused art gallery and an informal clubhouse for artists and musicians who followed. Along the way, its reputation as a pillar of arts in the city grew beyond city limits — a month prior to our chat with Campagna, his gallery hosted Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism pop-up experience.

But still, 20 years later, he still hasn’t changed his tune from the early days. The artwork inside remains almost entirely local, just as the front door remains a revolving cast of artists.  

This Saturday, Nov. 22, the gallery will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a free party from 4 to 9 p.m. at 2650 Main St., including live music from Madison King and a “best-of” show from longtime gallery collaborators. The celebration coincides with the Deep Ellum Block Party and will debut the first-ever “Party In The Plaza,” where King will perform alongside Big Tech’s DJ.

Two decades in, Campagna shows no signs of leaving Kettle or Dallas behind. He says he has at least one more big mural in him and alludes to using it on a long-held passion project, to which he remains coy about the details.

“My personal religion is to leave a better place than you found it,” Campagna says. “We’re just passing through in the space of life. Who knows what’s next, if anything? There’s no sense of getting uptight about it.”