~ Coming May 3, 2024
~ The One Piece Show Returns
~ Coming May 3, 2024 ~ The One Piece Show Returns
Dean Johnson:
The One Piece Show
Returns May 3, 2024
Last years return of The One Piece Show, after more than a decade on hiatus, was a resounding success in the local art community. We heard one common refrain — “You gotta do this again!”
We heard you. Join us on First Friday, May 3, at Schwitzer Gallery in the CCIC. Bruce Dean and Scott Johnson are hosting this iconic group show featuring works by their artist friends and colleagues. The show will feature one work from each of more than 40 local artists. Artworks will include paintings, prints, photography, ceramics, sculpture, glass art, and more.
The One Piece Show
May 3 - 29, 2024
Artist Reception First Friday, May 3, 2024 from 6 - 9 p.m.
Schwitzer Gallery at Circle City Industrial Complex (CCIC)
2024 ONE PIECE ARTISTS
Julie Ball
Dale Bernstein
Tom Casalini
Larry Endicott
Cindy Lory
Carol Morotti
Matt Mulinaro
Scott Nelson
Andre Parnell
Yasha Persson
Jerry Points
Kenton Pratt
Michael Schwab
Joe Smith
Carlos Sosa
Tom Willey
PHOTOS FROM LAST YEARS SHOW
Here are just a few photos of the artwork from The One Piece Show in 2023 at the Schwitzer Gallery at CCIC.
We’re looking forward to another great show on First Friday, May 3, 2024.
Dean Johnson on Instagram
Bruce Dean and Scott Johnson founded Dean Johnson Design in 1987.
As a small design firm, Dean Johnson Design was a unique combination of art and design, pairing a range of creative art and illustration with a strong design aesthetic. Plus, there was an underlying desire to have fun and enjoy the process.
The crew may have been small, never more than a dozen souls, usually fewer. But they were mighty, willing to take on branding, design, and marketing challenges from startups to centenarians.
Dean Johnson Gallery was a 15 year experiment in the arts.
Dean Johnson Gallery operated at 646 Mass Ave from 1996 through 2012, presenting eight to ten shows a year. A wide variety of graphic, commercial, and fine art made the gallery a top destination, regularly listed on the Best Gallery in Indy list by Indianapolis Monthly and Nuvo Newsweekly. The best part was having a design studio upstairs from a constantly rotating gallery of exceptional local, regional, and national artists.
ART
As an early tenant in the Stutz building Dean Johnson helped launch The Stutz Show in 1994 along with a cadre of committed artists in the building. By 1996, the design firm moved to their new office building on Mass Ave with a gallery on the first floor, the same year the Arts Council of Indianapolis awarded Dean Johnson its prestigious ARTI Award for their contributions to the arts. The first hanging of artwork in the gallery was a benefit for former Gov. Frank O’Bannon in the fall of 1996. The first official exhibition was The One Piece Show that November.
DESIGN
It’s hard to know what to say about Dean Johnson Design. We had an incredible group of outstanding clients, some of which we continued to work with well past Dean Johnson’s expiration date. Arts orgs like the Indiana Repertory Theatre, the Phoenix, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Indiana Historical Society and Clowes Memorial Hall. Sports teams and events from the Pacers to the RCA Tennis Championships to all 88 NCAA championships. International groups like Lilly and Kiwanis. Local, state, and regional communities and economic development groups. And we had a blast working with Some Guys Pizza, Broad Ripple Brewpub, Loughmiller’s, and Cafe Patachou. We created logos, brand identities, marketing, and advertising campaigns. We produced print, digital, and video as well as publications, books, signage, and packaging. And when there was time, we made art with, and for, our friends.
GALLERY
As mentioned above, the gallery was an experiment, one conceived of over beers after a lecture at an Indianapolis Art Director’s Club meeting where the speaker from Toronto ran a design studio / illustration rep / art gallery. It sounded very cool so when we built our new office we planned a gallery—with little knowledge and no experience as gallerists.
Nevertheless, we prevailed. We showed Hatch Show Prints, Bald-Headed Potters, Purdue Boilermakers, Latin American Hoosiers, Scratch Board Artists, and Bombers (graffiti artists). We assembled 15 One Piece Shows and dozens of group shows.
The gallery was also a place for students, non-profits, community orgs and a few wedding parties to come together. To us and many of our friends, it was nothing less than our church.
Dean Johnson Design & Gallery was much more than two guys.
Over a 25 year span it was scores of staff, interns, friends, family, clients, colleagues, artists, and associates. People and personalities made Dean Johnson what it was, an amazing collaboration of smart, talented individuals who wanted to work hard, have fun, and make Indy a more interesting place to live. It was the clients that allowed us to help craft their brands and marketing. It was an experiment in commerce, creativity, and connectedness that offered artists a place to share their work and everyone else a place to enjoy art. And everyone that supported Dean Johnson made it all worthwhile.
