At the opening of Damon Dash Gallery in the Canal Street section of New York City he once again made his presence known. Hundreds of people poured into the three-story complex to look at art from Isaac Fortoul, Bobby Castaneda, Hector Ruiz, Heather Gargon, and Jeremy Wagner, and many more were turned away at the door. Juxtapoz sat down with Dash to discuss why he's hammering a stake in the gallery set and—more importantly—why now? --George Koroneos

George Koroneos: What does art mean to you, and is it important enough to you to start a gallery?

Damon Dash: I'm not 100 percent all day, every day on the art scene. I don't want anyone to think that I'm pretending to be something that I'm not. I have this environment that's very creative, and it spawned a place for people to express themselves by painting. I had an intern (Dash Gallery Director Nyssa Frank) who was more aware of the art world than I was—her dream was to run a gallery at some point—and because of that, I always kept her close to me. I don't believe in coincidence—I believe everything happens for a reason—so I felt like we should capitalize. She started bringing in different artists and explaining to me why I should like them. The gallery spawned form there.

This to me is like the first pure gallery opening of artists that we completely believe in and we let them create art in our environment. The world we have here is somewhat like a lifestyle and that's what we do. We call it the 24-hour karate school, because all 24 hours of the day we are working on something creative and a lot of what's been made happens in that environment.

In New York, the hip hop and graffiti scenes go hand in hand. Did you grow up surrounded by both cultures?

Yeah, I'm from Harlem. Graffiti was always a part of the culture along with the break dancing. I was like about 10 or 11 when that was really relevant, but I wasn't a graffiti artist by any stretch, however I was always aware of the art. Even in my other offices, I always had people showcase their art. I always had this dream of having some form of art gallery and some form of representation of it, because it cooincides with other artistic things that I do.

Were there any artists that you grew up respecting?

I was a big fan of Ernie Barnes from Good Times and I have a few of his pieces here. I was always intrigued by the lifestyle component of Andy Warhol—how the art translated him to being cool in the clubs. I also like the business of it as well. When you can make money just admiring things that you love—that's the best hustle on the planet.

You can appreciate money more when it's hanging from your wall.

Right. Every time I walk into a bank I see all this art on the walls and when I ask why they have it hanging, they always say that it's because someone didn't pay their bills. I couldn't believe that you could collaterolize art. Real estate and art are both kinda like the same.

Part Two of this chat with Damon Dash is HERE.

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