It’s been a long, hard summer for Kettle Art Gallery. Frank Campagna, who started the space 19 years ago, says that while the mid-year season is always difficult, this one was especially rough. “Who wants to walk on the concrete in Deep Ellum when it’s 110 outside?” he asks. Not me.
But Campagna is tough. It’s part of his personality, equal parts gruff street artist and affable community builder. He’s not going anywhere, and he’s optimistic about the coming months. This weekend, the space opens “Greetings From the Future,” a series of new works by Cathey Miller, whose wacky, colorful art has been part of the gallery’s roster since day one.
“Election years are terrible for business; everyone wants to sit on their wallets,” Campagna says. “I was looking for somebody who wants to kick up some dust.”
And kick up some dust is exactly what Miller’s work does. She’s created 28 new works for this exhibition that feature sci-fi scenes of women in space, many of them painted in alien green (which, of course, is the same color as the ubiquitous Charli XCX Brat green). Campagna says the sheer number of works and their size makes it an immersive experience—“like walking into someone’s brain.” His partner in life and in the gallery, Paula Harris described the exhibit as “a little Meow Wolf,” Campagna says, before at the overplayed comparison to the zany art playground, which opened a franchise in Grapevine last year.
For her part, Miller is excited to be one of the gallery’s blockbuster shows for the fall. She describes Kettle Art as Campagna’s little “outsider artist family.” These paintings are part of a larger body of work for which she has created an eponymous mythical planet, Cathedonia. The works are fun, playing on mid-20th century visions of the future. She has created a visual language that ranges from Hollywood Westerns to 1970s disco, throwing in time-travel tunnels and “the occasional googly eyeballs.” “Girl power sc-fi,” she calls it.
“I hope viewers will, for a little while, see the world a little differently,” Miller says. “I hope they will see more color and more sparkle all around them, like I do, when they leave the gallery.”
The paintings have only been up for a few days, but they’ve added a little sparkle to Campagna’s attitude. He might even describe himself as hopeful for the first time in a few months. He says he anticipates this show will pick up the pace at the gallery through the rest of the year. (The cooler temps don’t hurt.) Even if it doesn’t, he’s not going anywhere.
“We’re still here, and we have an amazing schedule lined up,” Campagna says. “My cockiness has worn kind of thin, but I do want that 20-year mark.”