Group Exhibit at DNA Gallery

Narciso Arguelles

DNA Gallery continues to impress with small group exhibits featuring a selection of local talent. Begun as the brainchild of Dylan and Amanda Bradway,  DNA Gallery had a goal of contributing to the community with their retail shop and small gallery. The gallery is located on NW 16th Street near Blackwelder in Oklahoma City. This area is known as the Plaza District and it has become a haven for Oklahoma City hipsters, at least that is their reputation. Some would argue that DNA led the wave of the hipster revolution. 

Dylan and Amanda have since sold their business and it continues under new owners and management, but they remain supportive to local artists. The current exhibit includes paintings, collage and ceramic art from. It is a nice selection and the artwork seems to flow well.

One featured artist who has started to build a following is Tony Thunder and it is easy to know why. His pop art inspired paintings are colorful and well designed. His work is reminiscent of other artist who have used comic books as source material like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Tony’s add a street-art flair to those images of pop culture.

In “Air Pirates”, (see figure 1), Tony acknowledges the source material with the title of the comic and the original release date of 1971. According to Wikipedia1, Air Pirates was an infamous collection of comics by underground cartoonist who were sued by Disney. The fact that Tony uses this as his source material is perhaps a tongue and cheek way of speaking about satire versus copyright, an issue often brought up with street artists.