Fruits of His Labor: Rick Dallago Showing "Banana Split" at Niza Knoll Gallery

You've probably seen the infamous artwork "Comedian," even if you don't know its name. Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan created the piece in 2019 for Art Basel by duct-taping a banana to a wall; "Comedian" gained even more notoriety last fall, when a crypto-bro paid $6.2 million just so he could eat the thing and insert himself into the saga of an infamous piece of conceptual art.

Artist Rick Dallago has now become part of the "Comedian" story, but in a different and more constructive manner. His "Banana Split" is a post-modernist take on Cattelan's original, with oil pastels on canvas portraying a hand holding an iPhone, taking a photo of "Comedian." It's one of two Dallago pieces in the current 15th Anniversary Exhibition at Niza Knoll Gallery, at 915 Santa Fe Drive. And in further homage to "Comedian," he says, "I've priced my painting at $6.2 million (fingers crossed...)."

An accomplished name in film production out in Hollywood, Dallago hit a rough patch about five years ago. "I had a couple of films in development that I spent years working on," he recalls. "I'd been nurturing these projects and spent the better part of a decade getting everything together; scripts were written, I was already reaching out to directors...and then both projects fell apart at the same time."

With nothing to lose and needing a change, he took family members up on an offer to move into a condo they owned in Boulder. "Originally, my plan was to come out and live there for a couple of months or so, just to reset," says Dallago. "But I sort of fell in love with Colorado. Denver, specifically. It's really two places simultaneously: to half the population, it's still a village; to the other half, it's a big city. That's part of its beauty, I think."

Dallago misses California, "especially being around so many big dreamers," he says. But that culture also comes with some not-so-great stuff, like "flakiness and weirdness and competitiveness and murder and lust," he laughs. "Denver's lovely by comparison."

The worldwide pandemic played a part in Dallago staying put, too; he'd already moved to Colorado when the lockdown hit six months later. "I was lucky enough to have found some studio space I could rent," Dallago says. "So I wasn't completely cooped up in the house. I could get out, go to work, focus. It was a fertile time, and I was fortunate not only that I wasn't stuck at home, but had something to work at. Something to keep me occupied as opposed to watching Squid Game for the tenth time."
Dallago's love of visual arts really began with his fascination for film. "I was always obsessed with movies from a very young age," he says. "And I grew up right at the beginning of the 1970s rise of filmmaking —The Last Picture Show, The Godfather, that movement. I was always good with art — I dabbled — and even ended up taking art classes from NYU, but decided to focus on film."

Years into his movie career, Dallago only returned to painting because of a break in a production schedule for a film — a pause that was going to take the better part of a year. "I was kind of scared to go back," Dallago admits. "But I realized there was so much crossover between the two efforts. My work is all about focus — where the eye will go. On depth of field, on color — these things that are true for film, as well.
"And narrative, for sure," Dallago continues. "There has to be a story there. I want people to look at my stuff and have questions, want to have a conversation. Art shouldn't give answers; art should ask questions."

That's exactly what Dallago hopes "Banana Split" will do. "This is actually the sixth painting I've done that's based on a piece of artwork, all of them with an iPhone in front of it," he says. "I was in Italy years ago, and went to see the Mona Lisa, and no one was just looking at the artwork. They were taking pictures of it, of themselves in front of it. You couldn't even see the dick on Michelangelo's "David" because everyone's selfie sticks were in the way."

Dallago's done take-offs in a similar style of Jackson Pollock, Norman Rockwell, Picasso and Dalí. The partner piece to "Banana Split" at Niza Knoll is along the same lines — someone taking a selfie at the Kennedy assassination in Dallas in 1963.

"Art needs to provoke conversation," says Dallago. "When the controversy arose around 'Comedian,' I thought it was great. That's the point of it, that we're discussing it. The same thing happened with Andy Warhol's soup cans, with the Impressionists, with Cubism. I relish the responses of people who see my work and have a reaction. What people bring to that experience is just awesome to me."

15th Anniversary Exhibition at Niza Knoll Gallery, 915 Santa Fe Drive; there will be an anniversary celebration from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, January 17. The show runs through February 23; learn more here.