DLG340 Dave Zackin is a hilariously brilliant artist – so why is the art world gallery system sleeping on him?

I’ve admired Dave Zackin’s work on Instagram for years, so when I opened a very small gallery at the Bushwick Comedy Collective to bring funny art to comedians, I was THRILLED when Zackin said yes. His show opens at The Dog House Gallery at The Brooklyn Comedy Collective, Friday,137 Montrose Ave., Friday, Sept.13, 6-9pm. It will be up through Oct. 21, 2024.

I was curious about Dave. His work is literally the funniest work I see on Instagram, plus he sells everything he makes, yet he works on his own, not interested in expanding his practice into a gallery/art world situation as many artists would aspire too.

I learn a lot from Dave in this session. A lot about how he came to do what he does, which involves a completely original practice of repurposing other people’s rejected pottery in the pottery studio. Dave’s life has balance, a job he loves, his art-making that he loves and most of all his wife and 7-year-old son. Dave turns out to be a great example of simply how to live.

We also discuss this wonderful film that Dave made in 2002 while studying animation at the Rhode Island School of Design, titled Tunanoodle, so I’m including it HERE.

See Dave’s work on Instagram HERE. Dave’s website is HERE.

Here's some quotes I found from Dave that helps explain his work/process.

"I grew up in Newton, next to Boston, but have been in Brooklyn for the past 18 years. I have always collected junk, and as a kid, I drew on my old adam/colecovision computer with a permanent marker. I drew on the old black and white tv we had in the attic. Drawing on top of things made them mine, and made them more than just junk. I did some drawings of Fred Flinstone as a kid and then added a mustache and told people they were drawings of my dad. I like modifying things to change their meanings."

"I create functional artwork made from discarded pots at a community ceramic studio in Brooklyn, NY. The challenge is to make something new out of half-finished pottery. 

I was never great at drawing from life, but I know how to put eyes and noses together to make some funny faces. The first ceramic studio I worked at had a big pile of unwanted pottery in the back yard that they let people glaze for free to test out different glaze combinations. I quickly became obsessed with drawing faces and writing notes on the discarded dishes. I loved that quick throw-away jokes could be applied to a material that, if not dropped on the floor, could last for thousands of years. "

Dave Zackin Bio

Dave Zackin is a designer and a fine artist working in New York City. Zackin earned a bachelor’s degree in animation at the Rhode Island School of Design, a Master of Public Health at the Hunter/CUNY School of Public Health, and a Master in Urban Studies at Queens College. His short animated film, Tunanooda, was screened in more than eighty film festivals, including New Directors, New Films at Lincoln Center, and the Kodak New Filmmakers' Showcase at Cannes, and won top prizes at the Student Emmys and the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Zackin's work has been featured in Chronicle Books' The Where, They Why, and The How, and in Time Out New York Magazine. He is the designer of the now ubiquitous City of New York Public Space Recycling Bins, recycling how-to stickers and hundreds of posters, public health info-sheets, and other things for the City of New York.