KAWS
June 27, 2010, to January 2, 2011
This first solo museum exhibition of the work of Brooklyn-based artist and designer Brian Donnelly, a.k.a. KAWS, includes his most recent paintings, sculptures, and drawings, as well as a survey of his iconic street art, apparel, product and graphic designs.
KAWS’s first aesthetic influences came from skateboarding, as did his familiarity with New York City. Around 1991, he started marking his name in different areas of New Jersey and Manhattan. By the time he finished high school, he was mostly focused on graffiti and started intervening on advertising billboards. While exploring new strategies and locations for his work, he obtained a tool for opening bus shelter advertisement boxes. This allowed KAWS to seize the posters, integrate his work, and then replace them. He added an inflated skull with crossed bones and X-ed-out eyes; sometimes the skull was part of a serpentine-looking body that wrapped around the models, a blend that was humorous and daring. Word got around, and when it came to the point where the posters were pulled down and collected almost as soon as KAWS had replaced them, he decided to move on. Next he channeled his creativity into his studio practice, as well as products he developed and distributed on his own and in his boutique in Tokyo, OriginalFake, in partnership with Medicom Toy.
Most recently, KAWS has been exhibiting the art he has been making as a daily practice for some time. His new paintings and sculptures reflect the wit, irreverence, and even affection that he inflicts upon the infamous and iconic entertainment and marketing characters that he loves/hates. KAWS’s characters are highly charged, humorous and yet bittersweet. Although they are recognizable by and accessible to everyone, ultimately they both serve and criticize contemporary consumer culture.
-Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, curator
KAWS Museum Exhibit Opening from Paper Fortress on Vimeo.
Reserve your signed copy of KAWS now—
only at The Aldrich!
Sign up to purchase the forthcoming monograph, KAWS, edited by Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, curator at The Aldrich, and published by Skira/Rizzoli International.
8 x 11 inches, approximately 264 pages, more than 340 images; $45, plus shipping
Only 250 signed copies will be available!
Due in November 2010
For more information, please contact lsharfin@aldrichart.org or call 203.438.4519 during regular Museum hours.
KAWS, Companion (OriginalFake) [aka Dissected Companion], 2006
Produced by Medicom Toy
Courtesy of the artist
