This segment profiles the artist known as KAWS, former Graffiti (tag) artist turned painter and designer of limited edition toys and clothing. This segment also features some cool clips of KAWS' art, displayed in Pharrell Williams' Miami Home and Kanye West's latest album cover and billboard.
You can catch his next exhibition,
"KAWS, The Long Way Home," February 21,— April 04, 2009 at the Honor Fraser Gallery in LA
http://www.honorfraser.com/?s=upcoming
or
http://www.honorfraser.com
"I just started simply through graffiti and drawing on my skateboard and painting on walls and getting that small recognition," said KAWS, known to his family as Brian Donnelly.
KAWS graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York with a BFA in illustration in 1996. After graduation, KAWS briefly worked for Disney as a freelance animator painting backgrounds. He also contributed to the animated series 101 Dalmations, Daria and Doug.
He began his career as a graffiti artist growing up in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Later moving to NYC in the 1990s, KAWS started subverting imagery on billboards, bus shelters and phone booth advertisements. These reworked advertisements were at first left alone, lasting for up to several months, but as KAWS' popularity skyrocketed, the ads became increasingly sought after.
In addition to NY, KAWS has done work in Paris, London, Berlin and Tokyo.
In the late 90s, KAWS began to design and produce limited edition vinyl toys, "an instant hit with the global art toy-collecting community,"especially in Japan, where this genre is well respected and widespread. More toys and later clothing were made for Original Fake, a recent collaborative store with Medicom Toy, in the Aoyama district of Tokyo where an original limited edition product is released each week.
KAWS has also participated in other commercial collaborations with Takahashi for Undercover, snowboard projects with Burton, and sneakers with Nike and Vans.
His most recent collaboration was with Comme des Garçons.
KAWS' acrylic paintings and sculpture have many repeating images, all meant to be universally understood, surpassing languages and cultures.
One of KAWS' early series, Package Paintings, was made in 2000. This series, entitled The Kimpsons, subverted the famous American cartoon, The Simpsons. KAWS explains that he "found it weird how infused a cartoon could become in people's lives; the impact it could have, compared to regular politics."
In addition, KAWS has reworked other familiar icons such as Mickey Mouse, the Michelin Man and the Smurfs.
Through all of his projects, KAWS has successfully blurred the line between fine art and mass-produced merchandise. He uses his products to allow his imagery to infiltrate a larger audience than that of the fine art world.
The artist is currently an active member in both the commercial and fine art communities.
His work is included in the traveling exhibition "Beautiful Losers," which started at the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center and will be traveling through 2009 throughout the US and Europe.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS (forthcoming)
Plastic Culture, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, Great Britain
The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT
SPECIAL PROJECTS
Album Cover, 808s and Heartbreak, by Kanye West
Also check out:
http://www.original-fake.com
http://www.kawsone.com
Source: Youtube
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