KAWS: FAMILY

Making his Canadian museum debut, Brooklyn-based artist Brian Donnelly (1974), better known as KAWS, bridges the worlds of art, popular culture and commerce with sophisticated humour and insightful appropriation. Renowned for his larger-than-life sculptures of cartoon-inspired characters and exuberant hard-edge paintings that playfully emphasize line and colour, much like 1960s Pop artists, he blurs the boundaries between populist and elite art, bringing mass media imagery into traditional art spaces.  Straddling the world of art and design, KAWS has forged a large international following both inside and outside the art world.

In this original AGO exhibition, visitors will see first hand the artist’s meticulous methods, creative process and range, through more than 75 artworks including wall murals, sketches, paintings, sculptures, his altered phone booth advertisements and product collaborations. Centered in Signy Eaton Gallery, with interventions throughout the museum, the centrepiece of the exhibition, is a larger-than-life painted bronze sculpture FAMILY (2021), featuring four of KAWS’ recurring figures of varying sizes posed as a nuclear family.

Organized by the AGO, the exhibition is curated by Julian Cox, AGO Deputy Director and Chief Curator.