It’s not often Atlanta audiences get to experience an exhibition by a renowned Brooklyn graffiti-turned-fine artist at their hometown museum.
But it is a testament to both the High Museum of Art’s desire to capture a younger, pop culture-savvy audience, as well as the movement of street art into the high art world that the artist KAWS, aka Brian Donnelly, is making his way to the High. Beginning Feb. 18, 57 works in various media will be featured in the solo exhibition “KAWS: Down Time.”
KAWS is known for artworks often rendered in punchy colors and drawn from a popular culture-rich image bank of Mickey Mouse, the Smurfs, SpongeBob SquarePants, fashion magazines and comic books. “Down Time” includes appropriated photographs of celebrities from Iggy Pop to Kate Moss overtaken by KAWS’ cartoon figures, a 7-and-a-halffoot Michelin man-evocative sculpture, and the painting “Down Time,” rendered in blazing, cartoon colors, recently acquired by the High for its collection.
The genesis of the show, said KAWS, was his and High Museum curator of modern and contemporary art Michael Rooks’ shared interest in the American artist H.C. Westermann. Rooks has written extensively about Westermann, who was known for his humorous, socially conscious sculpture.
“I am very fond of Westermann's work and Michael's contribution to it, so I was eager to meet and hopefully work with Michael,” said KAWS.
“After a few conversations, Michael invited me to see the museum and discuss the possibility to have my sculpture ‘Companion (Passing Through)’ travel to the High Sifly Piazza. This was the starting point of our project, but it organically grew into a multisite installation including paintings, drawings, a mural and additional sculptures.”
Since November, KAWS’ 16-foot sculpture of a despondent-looking Mickey Mouse-influenced character, “Companion (Passing Through),” has stood on the High’s piazza, acting as a sort of advance guard for what’s to come.
Like Andy Warhol’s soup cans or Jasper Johns’ flags, the skeleton-head cartoon with the X-ed out eyes featured in “Companion” is a recurring figure in the artist’s lexicon. KAWS has called that iconic skull and crossbones creature “a sweeter version of death.” Of that signature mix of morbidity and cuteness, KAWS observed, “I use humor as a way of navigating through life's complexities.”
In addition to the paintings, sculpture and drawings featured in “Down Time,” KAWS is creating an original commissioned mural called “The Nature of Need” for the exhibition.
KAWS’ first foray into art was as a kid growing up in Jersey City, N.J., writing graffiti in the '80s. In the 1990s, KAWS graduated to a more sophisticated form of street art, removing posters from bus stop display cases, manipulating them and then replacing them with his own redux posters featuring fashion models now sporting bright, snakelike cartoon figures in acrylic paint.
“I'm lucky that I was never really good at anything, but somehow I convinced myself early on that I was an artist. As I got older, I realized I really didn't have any other options, so I just make the most of it,” KAWS said.
After graduating from the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 1996, the artist expanded his work into sculpture, painting and the creation of a line of commercial products including collectible figures and clothing imprinted with his distinctive images.
Though he has recently shied away from describing himself as a graffiti artist, KAWS has retained his subcultural cachet while gaining the acceptance of the art establishment. Both aspects of that twofold golden boy status will be on view in “KAWS: Down Time.”
Visual art preview
“KAWS: Down Time.” Feb. 18-May 20. $18; $15, students and seniors; $11, children 6-17; free for children 5 and under and members. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; until 8 p.m. Thursdays; noon-5 p.m. Sundays. High Museum of Art, 1280 Peachtree St. 404-733-4444, www.high.org.
About the Author
