Kaws
dal 5/11/2008 al 22/12/2008
Segnalato da
5/11/2008
Kaws
Gering and Lopez Gallery, New York
The artist sees his technique as a sieve of modern culture, filtering and re-contextualizing the images and information that he comes in contact with daily. Beginning as a graffiti artist in the 1990s, he took an interventionist approach to the imagery on billboards and bus shelter advertisements, interweaving his own graphics. This exhibition features his most recent paintings and sculpture.
GERING & LóPEZ GALLERY is pleased to present the much anticipated solo exhibition of
new work by Brooklyn-based artist KAWS. The artist sees his technique as a sieve of
modern culture, filtering and re-contextualizing the images and information that he
comes in contact with daily. Beginning as a graffiti artist in the 1990s, KAWS took
an interventionist approach to the imagery on billboards and bus shelter
advertisements, interweaving his own graphics. KAWS now uses the worldwide
popularity of his familiar brand-like symbols to explore other methods of
integrating his iconography into the global consumer culture.
This exhibition features the artist's most recent paintings and sculpture.
Large-scale acrylic works on canvas incorporate his usual cast of characters set
against abstract, chaotic scenes of geometric shapes. In this series, the subject is
displaced and the focus is drawn to the bold coloration
of the elements. In another group of monochromatic paintings, line work and
treatment of the surface texture obscure the compositional focus leaving only the
presence of the characters' emotive expressions in abstraction. Additionally, KAWS
has produced a series of thirty-three uniquely painted life-size bronze sculptures
of his own severed head. With this series, KAWS reinvents the age-old tradition of
bronze casting by finishing the sculptures with playful candy coated colors. A
sculpture entitled Chum stands as a larger-than-life rendition of a classic KAWS
character.
Throughout his career, KAWS has explored different approaches to his artistic
agenda. In 2006, he opened his own shop in Tokyo, OriginalFake, where new products
release weekly in limited quantities. He has completed several collaborative design
projects with such labels as Commes des Garçons, Marc Jacobs, Levi's, Nike, and A
Bathing Ape. Through each of these ventures, KAWS has successfully blurred the line
between fine art and mass-produced merchandise thus allowing his artistic vision to
touch a far-reaching audience.
Born in 1974 in New Jersey, KAWS graduated with a BFA from the School of Visual Arts
in New York. He has had international solo exhibitions at several galleries
including Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Miami, FL; Bape Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; Colette,
Paris, France; and the MU Art Foundation, Eindhoven, Netherlands. His work has also
appeared in many group exhibitions such as Everything Else at Franklin Parrasch
Gallery, New York, NY; Ugly Winners at Galerie Du Juor Agnes B., Paris, France; and
Beautiful Losers, a traveling exhibition that has been on view at Le Tri Postal,
Lille, France; Palazzo Dell'Arte, Milan, Italy; the Orange County Museum of Art,
Newport Beach, CA; and the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH, among others.
He was the winner of the 1998 Pernod Liquid Art Award and three monographs have been
published about his work.
Reception: Thursday, November 6, 6-8pm
Gering and Lopez Gallery
730 Fifth Avenue - New York
Free admission