'KAWS' - RVCA ANP Vol. 2 No. 1 2008

KAWS

Text and Interview: Brendan Fowler
Photos: Terry Richardson
Art Courtesy of KAWS

The first time I interviewed Brian Donnelly was in 1997. He was 22 or 23 years old and, for sure, one of the most famous international graffiti writers of the day. But he was also at the beginning of what would prove to be a sort of career transition—very much on his own terms, as has proven to be the only way he does anything—which, 10 years later, finds him better known to a wider audience, but in such a way that it is nearly impossible to surmise his notoriety in a simple “this is what he is famous for” way.

At that point in 1997, he was gaining his first bits of notoriety outside of graffiti circles for the phone booth and bus shelter advertisements that he was taking out, painting, and replacing. Like much of his output to this day, they were slick, playful, dark, and disorienting, and they proved to be a major moment in that field that would soon be dubbed “street art,” and which he would soon leave behind—although not entirely, but entirely enough to raise the ire of many of those heavily invested in it, just as he did with graffiti before it—sort of.

Fast forward to 2008 and our second interview, which we have jokingly been referring to as our “10 year anniversary interview,” beginning with his involvement in the contemporary collector toy world, a topic on which we stay not because that is his “main thing”—if anything, it is perhaps the most anecdotal output for which he is known—but because it illustrates very well how his career has worked: an idea presents itself, he may collaborate with someone to see it to fruition, the result is radical and exciting, and invariably a new precedent is set.

First with graffiti, then with what would become “street art,” then toys, then the idea of a website as a commerce point, then the “company/artist collaboration” (Brian has worked with Lucasfilm, Comme des Garçons, Undercover, Supreme, A Bathing Ape/BAPE, Marc Jacobs, The Simpsons Movie, Medicom—after this interview I found out that next season Brian has shoes coming out with Nike, Vans, and Visvim all at the same time, which is even more striking for the fact that companies in the same market typically do not allow for that kind of artist overlap, but in Brian’s case, they are wisely making the exception, as each shoe will sell out immediately and be collector’s items forevermore).

He changed streetwear looks in general—his 2005 collections with A Bathing Ape were the start of the allover print madness that we still see today—and then redefined how a clothing line and store could operate on the global market with his own OriginalFake. As such, it would seem quite safe to assume that his rapidly increasing involvement with the contemporary art world will prove no less significant, right? In a time when an established artist such as Takashi Murakami’s collaborations with Louis Vuitton have done much to further—and some would say incite—the dialogue about art and design and luxury and branding and so much else, what will happen when an artist who is already somewhat of a brand begins the next phase of his career as a very bona fide member of the blue-chip gallery system?

It’s not literally the converse trajectory, but close enough to imagine that the conversation is about to get a little bit more interesting, as the next six months will see KAWS have his first major U.S. solo exhibitions at Miami’s Emmanuel Perrotin (September ’08), New York’s Gering & López (November ’08), and Los Angeles’ Honor Fraser (February ’09).

And yes, I said “KAWS.” Brian Donnelly has stayed with the same nom de plume for every one of the aforementioned career moments. He adopted it initially for “the letters,” and because it was a name “without connotations,” although people would later try to assign them.

Today it is undeniably the identity he has assumed entirely.