By Ian P.E.
First off, the funniest display of art I’ve ever seen is located in the basement of Asterisk Gallery in Tremont. Go past the “adult material” warning, open the closet doors and you’ll find yourself within the “penis-art room”, which brims, from floor to ceiling, with collages of pop culture icons interposed with glorious erect penises. The dreaded pleasure-rockets proudly flaunt their manhood everywhere, and anywhere…they pop up in the most unexpected places, like a hidden danger unleashed on the innocence of America.
While feminist vagina art has gained acceptance within the art world and can be found on gallery walls across the world, its archrival nemesis – the erect penis, is still lurking in the shadows. It’s a maligned beast whose power is known and feared, and as a result, has been systematically beat down to the brink of extinction, to the point where the only acceptable rendition is of its powerless, flaccid, unassumingly limp dick alter-ego.
Dana has really put himself out in the crossfire with that one. He’s the owner of Asterisk, and is not one to shy away from controversy. One thing he is not, however, is anti-feminist in anyway…he’s an open-minded artist who delves into topics which create reactions within the viewer (which of course, are completely subjective), and opens the dialogue on society’s cultural standards as well as its taboos.
With Asterisk, Dana has been able to fill a huge vacuum in the local art scene for an exhibition space which dedicates itself to local, emerging artists. Cleveland wouldn’t be quite the same without it…and I probably would’ve never moved back here if I hadn’t seen some of the shows there, which fostered hope that Cleveland does in fact have an audience for edgy visual artists…however small, at least it’s honest and not concerned with the latest trends or take itself too seriously.
We included some photos here of Dana’s water-tank lamps, we’ll be doing an in-depth feature on his art in the near future on our website, where we’ll have room to correctly display a body of his varied work, and pick the brain of this artistic force, known as Dana Depew.
