When Brian Donnelly started tagging trains in the ‘90s from Jersey City to Manhattan’s Lower East Side, he never thought his act of teen rebellion would lead to a worldwide audience, let alone see one of his art pieces [The Kaws Album] fetch almost AU$22 million at a Sotheby’s Auction in Hong Kong.
But that’s exactly what happened to the 52-year-old artist who swapped chunky lettering for taking down phone booth and bus shelter advertisements to place skull and crossbones motifs and XX for eyes as his curious stamp.
He chose the name KAWS because he liked the way the letters looked together, and now, the father of two who lives in Brooklyn with his wife [Julia Chiang, also an artist] and their two kids [Sunny and Lee] unveils a new era of his partnership with UNIQLO.
He was last in Australia as part of an NGV mid-career retrospective KAWS: Companionship in the Age of Loneliness exhibition – and what a time that was. For now, fans are lucky to also inspect his iconic work at the Pt. Leo Estate Sculpture Park.
KAWS takes modern pop culture and give it his own existential shakedown. This is where well-known TV names like The Simpsons [which he recreates as The Kimpsons], The Smurfs, Fat Albert, Snoopy, Peanuts and Sesame Street are handled with careful repurposing to bridge a conversation between art and how these world-renowned figures have no cultural barriers – everyone around the world knows who they are – but begs the question of – are we happier?
Donnelly doesn’t pretend to know any answers, he merely plugs his art into a conversation about pop culture’s place in our own world; how TV has become King and why those deathly XX for eyes get us to ask deep philosophical questions.
“It’s been good to develop and grow a show like this on a very serious level,” said Brian Donnelly when we met in Melbourne on his first visit in 2019.
“I’m pretty meticulous about cataloguing my work, and doing a show on this scale meant I had to dig deeper to bring new content to it. There’s pieces in this exhibition taken from the early 90s I have never shown before,” he said.
Donnelly has designed and collaborated with everyone from Original Fake [his own label], A Bathing Ape, Supreme, Nike, Comme des Garcons, NIGO and Dior. He has collaborated with Japanese retailer Uniqlo on many occasions too.
The new UNIQLO collection is part of a First Artist In Residence initiative.
“I am thrilled to be taking this next step with my longtime partner UNIQLO to become the brand’s first Artist in Residence,” he said.
“In this role, I hope to tap into the art community and global creatives to curate the next generation of UNIQLO collaborators” he explained of his new appointment working on new LifeWear garments.
“In our ever-evolving world, art is now more important than ever as an expression of our humanity. KAWS has been breaking the traditional boundaries of the art world, just as Uniqlo in its efforts to redefine the apparel industry through LifeWear” said President of Global Creative of Fast Retailing, John C Jay.
ICONIC MOMENTS: DIOR X KAWS
At Paris Fashion Week SS19, KAWS collaborated with the haute couture’s new creative director Kim Jones. The runway featured Donnelly’s 22-foot sculpture of his signature BFF character adorned with thousands of pink roses. Those invited to the show were gifted limited edition KAWS dolls –with Kim Kardashian and Victoria Beckham two lucky collectors.
