POINT OF DISORDER, 2013. Acrylic on canvas. 305 x 295 cm / 120 x 116 in. © KAWS. Photo: Tom Powel Imaging
Curated by Executive Director Mónica Ramírez-Montagut.
This survey exhibition explores KAWS’ dynamic range of visual vocabulary and diverse artistic output over the last decade, highlighting his consistent engagement with American popular culture while intentionally exploring boundaries and overlaps between different genres and across mediums.
KAWS (b. 1974, Jersey City) is a Brooklyn-based artist who has achieved widespread recognition for his graphic style and iconic characters. Working in a wide range of mediums, including painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, and product design, KAWS’ practice transgresses borders between “high” and “low” culture, questions the conventional hierarchies of the art world establishment, and seeks to democratize the way art is experienced for a new generation.
Fulfilling the promise of predecessors such as Duchamp and Warhol, KAWS has reinvented that legacy for the 21st century and taps into the zeitgeist of contemporary American life. With a deep appreciation for pop culture and a fascination with rampant consumerism, his inventive and graphic sensibility is used to deftly examine the flaws of conspicuous consumption, while also reveling in the joys it sometimes brings. Through his riffs on beloved childhood characters, the work also explores universal emotions of joy, innocence, and love, as well as despair, loneliness, alienation, and a “real life” that doesn’t live up to the promise of youth, or Instagram. Inherent to the work is the question of our role in the current cultural landscape, a moral quandary that asks questions, but provides no easy answers.
More information: Parrish Art Museum