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From The Street To The Aldrich
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October 28, 2010 - From The Street To The Aldrich
By Amanda Bloom, Editor, The Mercurial.com
Graffiti, a nuisance for officials and property owners and a sly snub at
|  | | | The Aldrich Museum, Main St, Ridgefield, CT | |
the notion of art and public space for writers, is a craft that can function
| |  | | Graffiti artist "KAWS" with one of his trademark pieces |
as a launch pad into a long career of art and innovation.
As "graf writers" whittle their tag time down to half a minute, hustle
around cities under the cover of night and see canvases on the
sides of buildings, the world begins to present itself in different
ways. Reality and perception diverge, yielding in between a vast
potential for new concepts.
KAWS, a Brooklyn-based artist whose real name is Brian Donnelly,
stepped onto his launch pad in the 1980s as he skateboarded around
New Jersey and New York. Now his multi-faceted works take up two
rooms at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, 258 Main Street,
Ridgefield. Larger-than-life plastic and fiberglass toy-like figures and
their miniature replicas, paintings of a familiar cartoon family called
"The Kimpsons", seamlessly altered CK perfume posters, shoe designs
and the cover of the 2009 "Best Of" edition of New York Magazine
all began with small-scale graffiti for KAWS.
One of KAWS' trademark designs is a puffy skull and crossbones with
X-ed out eyes. This head tops many of his toy figures, which include
interpretations of Mickey Mouse, the Michelin Man and Pinocchio.
The skull was also a part of his ad campaign in the 90s. Using a tool
given to him by a friend, KAWS would open bus shelter ad boxes.
He would remove the ads and paint his skull on the posters in his
studio, making sure to unify the two images rather than vanquish the
advertisement. He would then replace the altered posters in their boxes
for all the world to see.
The sultry black and white Calvin Klein model shots from this era were
one of KAWS' favorite posters to "skullify". Upon meeting KAWS, the
man behind these shots, photographer David Sims, gave KAWS the
original photographs to use for his art. One of the walls of the Aldrich
exhibit is devoted to these altered images: the limbs of the skinny,
broody and beautiful models wound in bright, cartoonish, snake-like
figures. The effect is that of a goofy virus infecting the models'
too-serious façades.
Last year, KAWS went a step further in this kind of collaboration with
"Graffiti-couture", a Vogue (Paris edition) fashion shoot with
photographer Mario Sorrenti and model Raquel Zimmerman. The
spread sets a futuristically-clad Zimmerman posing with abandon
before walls and buses covered in KAWS' work. It is interesting to see
how KAWS' works, which one might think shuns popular and
commercial culture, has come full circle to collaborate with it...
or perhaps capitalize upon it?
KAWS' exhibit is on display at the Aldrich through January 2, 2011.
Also on display is a commemoration of 35 years of screenprints by Gary
Lichtenstein; audio and video montages by Beryl Korot;
Under the Westside Highway paintings by Rackstraw Downes; portrait
photography by John Shearer; large-scale paintings by Gina Ruggeri;
and sculptures from Robert Taplin's Punch Series. The Aldrich is open
Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 5 pm. For more information,
please call 203-438-4519 or visit AldrichArt.org.
Have you seen a local exhibit or show that you want to share with your
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