KAWS

[blah2u]

www.beinghunted.com/v51/news/2008/04/original_fake_winter_exhibition/original_fake_winter_exhibition.html

[sleepboy]

Hm.... how do i get an invitatioin LOL? Yes, I guess ebay it is.

[highbrow]

Sadly enough ebay is the only way, however as it is an invite to retail for purchasing his clothing line who knows if one will make its way. as i type this there is probly or 6 getting ready for put up at insane prices.

[sleepboy]

An interesting article about KAWS moving into the gallery world...a new direction it seems.

At 33, Brian Donnelly is enjoying a successful art career. Working out of a studio in Brooklyn, he has sold paintings to Pharrell Williams, the rapper and producer; Nigo, the designer-entrepreneur; and Takashi Murakami, the international art star, among others. He has also created a variety of products including toys, apparel and even pillows — and indeed he has his own store, Original Fake, in Tokyo. He has also been widely known in the “street art” world for years; one of his early altered-phone-booth-ad posters recently traded hands on eBay for $22,000. One thing Donnelly had not done until lately, however, is forge a relationship with a dealer or art gallery. This wasn’t because he shunned or had a problem with the traditional gallery system. He says it’s just that “nobody asked.”

But that has changed. Donnelly, who works under the name KAWS, has been taken on by the Gering & López Gallery in New York, where he’ll have a show this November. He will also exhibit a batch of paintings at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Miami in September and will have another solo exhibition early next year at Honor Fraser in Los Angeles. Sandra Gering, of Gering & López Gallery, had not heard of Donnelly before another artist she works with included him in a group show last summer, but she is clearly smitten with Donnelly’s bright, clean, slightly off-kilter canvases that often riff on pop-culture figures like the Smurfs or the Simpsons. And she figures there’s another market for his work. “I think it needs to get out there in the art world,” she says.

It seems odd that someone already making a good living as an artist is only now being introduced to “the art world,” but Donnelly’s story may say something about the different ways creative work can acquire value these days. He studied painting and majored in illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York, and during the 1990s he gained a certain underground notoriety for removing ads from Manhattan bus shelters and altering them — often adding a slightly disturbing skull-like image, with X’s for eyes — and then putting them back. Visits to Japan brought him into contact with a subculture of hustling young creators blurring the lines between design, art and business, and in 1999 he began producing plastic, toylike versions of his characters in addition to collaborating on products with companies like the skateboard brand DC Shoes and the fashion line Comme des Garçons. He gradually built a clientele for his paintings on his own, and images of his work traveled widely online.

John Jay, executive creative director at the ad agency Wieden & Kennedy, remembers meeting Donnelly in Japan and thinking that he had somehow skipped a career step. “But people don’t always understand,” Jay adds, “you don’t have to have a gallery to sell to international stars anymore.” Edward Winkleman, owner of the Winkleman Gallery in New York, offers a slightly different take. At edwardwinkleman.blogspot.com, he offers thoughtful observations and practical advice about overprotective gallerists, studio-visit strategies and the like. While the Internet is helping a growing number of artists get noticed, he says, most upstart artists still prefer to rely on a gallerist to connect with appropriate consumers (collectors). And Donnelly’s reputation-building and connection-making is pretty much what Winkleman advises many of his readers to do; he just did it in a different context — one in which selling your creativity is part of the job.

So why bother with galleries at all? Winkleman notes that it remains much harder for artists who operate outside the art-world structure to end up in museum collections, which is still seen as “the quintessential validation” by many. And surely a new market is part of the equation. Gering has been introducing Donnelly’s work to her clients since last summer, and “we’ve sold every painting we’ve brought into the gallery,” she says. The November show will consist of new sculptures (including 33 bronzed, painted renditions of his own head) and paintings; the works will be priced at $25,000 and up.

Donnelly, who is surprisingly low-key and humble in person, adds a different point about wanting his work in a gallery: hardly anyone has seen his privately sold paintings up close. Even the work that shows up on the Internet, he says, ends up looking as if it could have been executed on a computer. “People really have no idea what they’re looking at,” he says. “I want them to be able to stand in front of the work.”

[lowpro]

^^^

Just read that article myself via NYTime.com. Nothing too surprising. But I will note that the final paragraph touches on how I've always thought about KAWS' original canvas work and why I've tended to be so critical of his paintings. They don't appear very technically sound (not that painting skill is requisite for a painter to be good at what they do or popular) and I've just never been too impressed with any of the images I've seen....on the Internet. And I think this is valid with a lot of artists. Internet images just cannot capture the essence of the painting or the painter. Seeing a painting in the raw and being able to get up close and personal is a completely different experience. So maybe I'd become a KAWS konvert if I were to witness them in person. Still, I'm going to wager that I won't be swayed too much when I check out his show in NYC in person. I just don't think there's that much substance or anything special about painting caricatures of popculture icons, especially if they're done in such a direct and sterile manner.

Just my two cents of course...But damn, do I love his 3D, sculptural, vinyl work so! Gotta give it to him there. His figurative creations are awesome


Also, this made me laugh out loud.

"...including 33 bronzed, painted renditions of his own head..."

For serious? Is that a typo? I can understand if it's supposed to be "renditions on his KAWS companion head" or something. But 33 brozned versions of his own head. That's reason enough to go to the show...ha!

[rhinomilk]

so this jump to galleries. is this a good or bad thing for us little people (well at least me who is "little")? i mean... not like i can afford anything though this move

[sleepboy]

Aug 2, 2008 16:25:00 GMT -8 lowpro said:

^^^

Just read that article myself via NYTime.com. Nothing too surprising. But I will note that the final paragraph touches on how I've always thought about KAWS' original canvas work and why I've tended to be so critical of his paintings. They don't appear very technically sound (not that painting skill is requisite for a painter to be good at what they do or popular) and I've just never been too impressed with any of the images I've seen....on the Internet. And I think this is valid with a lot of artists. Internet images just cannot capture the essence of the painting or the painter. Seeing a painting in the raw and being able to get up close and personal is a completely different experience. So maybe I'd become a KAWS konvert if I were to witness them in person. Still, I'm going to wager that I won't be swayed too much when I check out his show in NYC in person. I just don't think there's that much substance or anything special about painting caricatures of popculture icons, especially if they're done in such a direct and sterile manner.

Just my two cents of course...But damn, do I love his 3D, sculptural, vinyl work so! Gotta give it to him there. His figurative creations are awesome


Also, this made me laugh out loud.

"...including 33 bronzed, painted renditions of his own head..."

For serious? Is that a typo? I can understand if it's supposed to be "renditions on his KAWS companion head" or something. But 33 brozned versions of his own head. That's reason enough to go to the show...ha!

No, probably like the heads that that bounty hunter toy was holding I think. Don't remember the name. Also haven't been too impressed with some of his "fine art." It's kinda hit or miss. For example, really didn't understand this...



Like you say, most of his paintings that I like are because there are toys that match up with the paintings. I wonder what comes first...the painting or the toy. Like I posted in his show thread, this is the only piece I have.

[nick210214]

Here is one of the few tasty photos in the upcoming issue of ANP Quarterly.



linky: www.highsnobiety.com/home/the_daily_news/archive/2008/august/12/kaws_x_terry_richardson_for_anp_quarterly/index.htm

notice the 4 foot black kaws

[nick210214]

tomorrow! via. G1950

[lowpro]

Haha. Can someone please verify this is an actual KAWS painting, thus confirming all my opinions about his creative and technical prowess. I always wondered what a true "original" KAWS piece would look like, that wasn't based on rehashing pop cultural icons. I almost wish I had never seen it, as it kind of diminishes my love for his 3D art - the only stuff of his I like and is somewhat credible (despite is obvious recycled nature) - somehow.



Note..Image was taken from the KR board, so not sure of it's authenticity. Looks like his signature is in the lower right hand corner.

[sleepboy]

Saw these on TAC blog. Bronze sculpture being released for his upcoming New York show at Gering & Lope, being released in an edition of 33. All different colors. Um, but price tag is 25K

[lowpro]

And with that, I think it's official. My love of his 3D work has been forever ruined, squandered with narcissism. I mean, who the f**k is he kidding?! It's gotta be some sort of sick joke (I'm sure it actually is)...a deluded experiment...an effort to weed out the true retards of the KAWS collecting population.

[svenman]

this is just so fugly.
confirms for me just how much i like his work.

[jakewaldron]

Wow. He should have at least done a full bust. Chopping it off at the neck like that looks ridiculous. And wouldn't a full-size classical bust be more his style anyway?

[sleepboy]

Oct 4, 2008 13:48:07 GMT -8 jakewaldron said:

Wow. He should have at least done a full bust. Chopping it off at the neck like that looks ridiculous. And wouldn't a full-size classical bust be more his style anyway?

I think it's the same head as the one that was used with his bounty hunter toys?

[lowpro]

Oct 4, 2008 13:48:07 GMT -8 jakewaldron said:

Wow. He should have at least done a full bust. Chopping it off at the neck like that looks ridiculous. And wouldn't a full-size classical bust be more his style anyway?

Yeah, you'd think he'd want to spice it up a little bit by adding in his trademark skullbones shooting out of his head, much like his companion figure. It would make it more dynamic and interesting. But jeez...this is insane to me.

[rizza79]

IMO, $825K for 33 sculptures of his head is definitely a complete joke. Talk about an ego!! A whole rainbow show of Kaws Profile bronze sculptures? give me a break.

[sleepboy]

Sorry guys, here is the pic of the toy. And yes, I would have much preferred it if the sculpture included some of his iconic imagery instead of his face. But even then, 25K seems to be a little high.

[jakewaldron]

Yeah, looks like the same thing. There's a big difference in what works that small compared to life size though.

Also, I don't get why its bronze if its going to be painted over. Just to say its bronze?

[amin]

i just don't get it...not one bit.

[lowpro]

[lowpro]

Did folks see this blasphemy? Ha. So awful! I'd love to know if anyone got conned into one. I'm sure there was an idiot or two with too much money.

[rizza79]

apparently most of them sold. check the Shows & Events thread for Gering Lopez/KAWS

[rizza79]

and what's wrong with 7 shades of pink? i can see how they were destined to be a hit

[thewalrus]

I went to this show before going to the Parla opening last night - the Kaws paintings were executed well but, the sculptures are definately a joke (imho). Also, I was in and out of there in 5 minutes flat - including the time I spent in the bathroom taking a piss. Overall, I wasn't impressed and won't be seeing anymore Kaws shows.