Page 46 - The Book For Men Fall/Winter 2023

State of the Art
KAWS makes his Canadian debut with a new larger-than-life show at the Art Gallery of Ontario
FEW ARTISTS HAVE LEFT QUITE AS INDELIBLE A MARK ON CONTEMPORARY
art as Brian Donnelly. Donnelly’s name is probably unfamiliar to most, but the professional moniker he goes by — and uses to sign each of his well-regarded works — is widely recognized, and has even impressed itself onto mainstream culture: KAWS.
Considering the Brooklyn-based artist’s immense impact on the art world, it’s surprising that KAWS has never staged a dedicated museum show in Canada. But that oversight will be corrected this fall, when his latest exhibition, KAWS: FAMILY, opens at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Curated by the AGO’s deputy director and chief curator, Julian Cox, KAWS: FAMILY showcases a diverse range of the artist’s work, with more than 70 works spanning two decades organized into a series of encounters that groups families of related artworks together — hence the exhibition’s name. The show will feature works in bronze and wood, on paper and can- vas, and sculpted from stainless steel. There’ll be plush toys and the same familiar characters that have recurred throughout KAWS’s career, inspired
by Donnelly’s love of cartoons.
Among the most notable pieces will be a series of larger-than-life wooden
sculptures, with an accompanying augmented reality installation, as well as the exhibition’s namesake work, FAMILY (2021): a painted bronze sculpture featuring KAWS’s iconic COMPANION, the humanoid figure with crossed out eyes; CHUM, a bulbous figure with an inflated, tubular look; and BFF, a fur-covered character that calls to mind the Muppets of Sesame Street. The trio, posed together in the style of a studio portrait, has become a recent calling card for the artist, reimagined in mediums including scale models and screen-prints.
But it’s not all about these figurative characters and anthropomorphized motifs. The show will also display — in an acknowledgement of KAWS’s commitment to making art accessible — a number of his more commercial works, including sneakers, cereal boxes, furniture, and album covers.
KAWS: FAMILY is on view at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
46 BFM / FW23 PORTFOLIO
STATE OF THE ART: TEXT BY MARC RICHARDSON. KAWS. FAMILY, 2021. BRONZE, PAINT, 219.1 × 207 × 95.6 CM. © KAWS