KAWS AT THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM
What a Party, We Ascend + Transcend
KAWS: WHAT PARTY, at the Brooklyn Museum, is guaranteed to be one of the city’s most significant art events of the year. The fun, interactive exhibition is the first major New York collection of Brooklyn-based artist KAWS’s work and runs from February 26 to September 5, 2021.
Brian Donnelly (b. 1974) is the name of the American graffiti artist and designer better known as KAWS, who, it is safe to say, has become one of the most recognizable and influential artists of our time. Born and raised in Jersey City, he began as a teenager on his hometown’s streets in the 1990s. It was at this time he chose the name KAWS. He has stated on several occasions that there is no specific meaning behind it. He liked the sound of it and how the letters worked together. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration from the School of Visual Arts in New York in 1996, after which he worked for a short while as a freelancer painting backgrounds for Jumbo Pictures’ animated series. He began subvertising (altering or creating parodies of contemporary advertisements, primarily corporate or political ones) on billboards, bus shelters, and phone booths while living in New York City. Shortly after that, his first brand collaboration would come along when designing a toy for the Japanese clothing brand Bounty Hunter. It marked the beginning of his path to becoming one of the most dominating forces in contemporary art.
What began as Donnelly’s passion project is now an empire, and it is hard not to come across one of his creations at least once. Due to his collaborations with multiple brands and companies from all popular culture, KAWS and his signature characters are everywhere. Some of the artist’s most notable collaborations include clothing and footwear brands such as Uniqlo, Vans, Nike (for which he designed both Air Force 1 and customized Air Jordan trainers,) Supreme, DC Shoes, and Sacai (his most recent fashion collaboration was for their Autumn Winter 2021 collection.) He has also designed magazine covers for multiple publications and cover art for musicians, including Kanye West. In 2012, he created a balloon for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and in 2013 he redesigned the Moonman trophy for the MTV Video Music Awards. If that wasn’t impressive enough, KAWS has a sizable online presence, with over three million followers on Instagram. He makes his art easily accessible to the general public, allowing them to interact with it digitally. Augmented reality (AR) is used in this exhibition to make it an experience one will never forget.
Donnelly’s practice is highly diverse, and in KAWS: WHAT PARTY visitors can view and engage with a wide selection of graffiti drawings, paintings, miniature collectibles, furniture, recent augmented reality projects, and sculptures created throughout his twenty-five-year-long career, as well as a selection of new and existing works that have never been displayed in public. He has a sculpture to be installed at Rockefeller Center’s historic plaza in summer 2021.
KAWS’s creations and characters are meant to be universally understood. He takes iconic commercial imagery and figures (Mickey Mouse, the Simpsons, Snoopy, or SpongeBob SquarePants, to name a few). He transforms them, making them his own and usually incorporating Companion’s signature character, a skull-like cartoony avatar inspired by Mickey Mouse, with Xs for eyes. Like many influential artists before him, he does an excellent job at blurring the line between commercial and fine art. Eugenie Tsai, who has curated the exhibition, has stated that: “While participating in a cultural environment shaped by image and consumption, KAWS simultaneously emphasizes the constant presence of universal emotions in his work, such as love, friendship, loneliness, and alienation—an emphasis that is now more important and relevant than ever before.”
KAWS: WHAT PARTY is a retrospective that features more than 165 works, and it will undoubtedly be the kind of enjoyable experience many of us need at the moment. You have time to see this incredible show until September 5, 2021.
