No one encompasses that soulless supersizing of pop culture as clearly as Kaws.
KAWS
KAWS Artwork of Chairman Mao Triggers Massive Outcry in China
After former KAWS fans burned their merch, the artwork, which was slated to go to auction at Sotheby’s Hong Kong on October 7, was taken down from the auction house’s website.
When Chairs Become Extraordinary Sculptures
The chairs in When Attitudes Become Chairs reveal how a decidedly utilitarian object can become something inspirational and new.
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: Norwegian youths destroyed a stone-age engraving of a skier, Mary Boone sued an art adviser over allegedly ill-gotten KAWS works, and a Salvador Dalí sculpture was vandalized in Quebec City.
Monsters’ Ball: Peter Saul and the Company He Keeps
The great iconoclastic painter Peter Saul, for the first time ever, has turned his hand to curating, gathering together nearly two dozen kindred spirits for a show that revels, as to be expected, in the libidinous and the ravenous, the stunted and the scared, the blinkered and the grotesque — that is to say, humanity. The effect, as to be expected, is sublime.
Four Art Shows to See in Philadelphia: Mario Ybarra Jr, Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, KAWS, The Barnes
One of our critics travels to Philadelphia to report on a few shows that should be on your radar.
Louis Vuitton Spots New Japanese Artist, Same Old Accessories Expected
I find it exciting when fine art fuses with fashion, and Louis Vuitton’s recently announced collaboration with Yayoi Kusama may produce some spectacularly spotted goods. Interestingly, this pairing coincided with former LV collaborator Takashi Murakami’s newly unveiled installation at Qatar Museums Authority, which witnessed a departure from the Japanese artist’s signature Superflat subject matter.
KAWS’s “Chaotic Frenzy of Shattered Form” in LA
LOS ANGELES – The inside of Honor Fraser, the Los Angeles gallery now showing artist and designer KAWS’s new solo exhibition Hold the Line, must feel far away from the New York City bus stops and phone booths of the late 1990s.
T-shirts Are the New Galleries: Top 10 Artist Tees
The artist t-shirt is a development we’ve known here at Hyperallergic for some time, but we thought it’d be good to let our readers explore it further. The blurry line demarcating art and fashion is obfuscated when artists have a hand in designing clothes. Is it just a cheap ploy to stock the gift shop full of more merchandise? Probably. But bearing an artist’s creation in your personal presentation potentially imbues clothing with a lot of meaning.
Courtney Love’s Hole Inspires Art Show
With the exhibition Pretty on the Inside, co-curators KAWS and Erik Parker reveal that they must be fans of the Courtney Love-led band Hole’s debut album and song for which it is named, but they also make us wonder about the show’s connection to the music.