From the first dawn of Wichita’s Final Friday art crawl in 1996, to eating brains as lead zombie in Rod Pocowatchit’s Wichita production “The Dead Can’t Dance,” artist Wade Hampton has sunk his rotting teeth into our flat state—and has not come up for air.

One of the original eight in the Famous Dead Artists group, Hampton’s presence in the mid ‘90s was central to the genesis of Final Friday, an event which at the time was lucky to see 10 visitors in a handful of galleries.  How did budding artists survive in Wichita under such primeval conditions?  Can artists still survive in the more evolved city today?  It’s easy to forget the shoestring past of the Wichita art and music scene, when we’re presented with such a growing wealth of events.

Hampton confides that the dedicated gallery owners were the ones to keep Final Friday from the ashes in the time before the city cared.  To deal with the lack of movement, he avoided a downward spiral of “putting the handcuffs on,” and becoming a slave to work that a stagnant community couldn’t support.  Considering viewers’ attitudes and responses (and bank accounts) are out of the artist’s control, a trial and error attitude can be very useful in an emergent community.  As an artist, not having to live on your work can be very freeing.

It’s this kind of attitude that keeps artists like Hampton moving in this crucial birthing time for our city.  He seems content letting fine art be instrumental in his personal life, while keeping a non-art job to pay the bills.  In a city of Wichita’s size, this may be a glaring necessity that has yet to be resolved for very many of our fine artists.

With an active reputation, Hampton has participated in many local shows, including two solo exhibitions titled “Art from the Gut” and “Return of Art from the Gut” in 2001 and 2003.  He sold a total of 225 small pieces in the shows.  He has also shown work at the retired Firehouse Gallery, Linesight Gallery, Go Away Garage, Big Sky Gallery, and Tractor Gallery.  More recently, he has had exhibitions at Tangent Lab and the Wichita Art Museum.  He has frequently designed graphics for Wichita State University, where he earned his bachelor’s in graphic design. 

Currently, Hampton is acting and plans to start directing his first feature length film this fall, titled Bleeding Wichita, a vampire film set in an office.  Did I mention his favorite filmmaker is David Lynch?  Visit wadehamptonart.com to view the professional website, with loads of images and video shorts.