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OG’s Return to Deep EllumEight original artists return to the neighborhood they helped revive in the 1980s.
DALLAS, TX On June 6, 2026, a group of eight pioneering visual artists reunites in Deep Ellum for a rare and compelling exhibition: OG’s Return to Deep Ellum. The show opens at Kettle Art Gallery from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., marking a powerful homecoming for artists who helped define the district’s creative identity.
Running through August 16, 2026, the exhibition features work by:
Bill Haveron, Brad Ellis, Brad Smith, Clay Austin, Dwayne Carter, Frank Campagna, Greg Contestabile, and Thor Johnson, along with a tribute to the late Albert Scherbarth and David 'Mosquito' Hawley. The exhibition is presented with guidance from Clearview’s Jeff Swaney and Jeffery Yarbrough.
“This exhibition reflects a time when artists didn’t wait for permissionthey made the work with whatever they had: brushes, torches, welding rods, spray cans, canvas, plywood, steel. They got to work.
These were not hobbyists.
They were not decorators.
They were not ‘content creators.’
They were artists who committed fully to a life in art.”
*OG’s Return to Deep Ellum* asks questions that only time can answer:
* What does it look like 40 years later?
* Was it worth it?
* Did they achieve what they set out to do?
* What would they say to younger artists considering the same path?
The exhibition also serves as an immersive attempt to reconnect with the raw creative energy of 1980s Deep Ellum:
* Can that spirit be recreated?
* What happens when youthful rebellion meets lived experience?
* Did the work stay local, or ripple outward into the wider world?
This is not nostalgia, it’s a reckoning. A reunion. A conversation between past and present, between who these artists were and who they’ve become.
Some found widespread recognition.
Some carved their own unconventional paths.
All of them made it matter.
Exhibition Details
OG’s Return to Deep Ellum
Kettle Art Gallery
2650 Main St, Dallas, TX 75226
Opening Reception: June 6, 2026 | 2:00–5:00 p.m.
Runs through August 16, 2026
For those who were there, it will resonate deeply.
For those who weren’t, it’s a rare chance to witness what happens when artists bet their lives on their art, and kept going.
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Event Venue
2650-B Main Street, Dallas, TX, United States, Texas 75226
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