KAWS brings his iconic cartoon-like art to SFMOMA
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A new exhibition by KAWS has landed at SFMOMA, letting you walk through a pop art display that feels like dropping into a Saturday morning cartoon show. Photo: Claire Reilly/Axios
KAWS Family — a new retrospective from Brooklyn-based artist Brian Donnelly — has just opened in SFMOMA and it's impossible to miss.
State of play: Donnelly, who goes by KAWS, has been creating cartoonish paintings and sculptures since the '90s, blending the worlds of pop art, street art, graffiti and cartoonish maximalism.
- The exhibition covers everything from KAWS's early "subvertising" — big bus stop ads graffitied with creepy characters painted in — to sketches and large-scale paintings.
- But the most eye-catching displays are his famous cartoon-like figures made out of bronze that look like a cross between Funko Pop figurines and Mickey Mouse in a dark, twisted parallel dimension like The Upside Down from "Stranger Things."
My thought bubble: KAWS' work is like a modern take on Andy Warhol's Campbell's soup tins — a blend of commentary, capitalism and commercial collaboration.
What they're saying: "These are the aesthetics that I lean towards," KAWS told Axios. "I like the way cartoons operate in this timeless, ageless manner."
If you go: The exhibit runs until next May at 151 3rd St. Be sure to keep an eye out for the giant inflatable KAWS figurine on the museum's roof!