How KAWS Became the Face Of Contemporary Art | Blueprint

[Music] artist toy maker and clothing designer Brian cause Donnelly married classic graffiti tropes with cartoon iconography in a street art medley that reinvigorated modern art and opened up the gallery and museum worlds for entire generation this is his blueprint so you grew up in Jersey City did you spend a lot of time going to museums in New York as a kid it wasn't really exposed a lot to museums or galleries or it's not really like a gallery scene or anything in Jersey City not that it wasn't you know a fun city to grow up in as an artist there was it was almost like a playground or a free-for-all under the Holland Tunnel there's all these walls and as a young kid learning graffiti I can just go there and paint all day long uninterrupted how were you the first time that you snuck out to go bombing elementary school maybe seventh grade eighth grade you know definitely before high school what was your exposure to graffiti other than obviously sonone the kids I skated with you know when I was skating I would I would come into the city and when you'd go to the city and skate you meet like a lot of kids you kind of create almost like little packs of kids and you know of course those older kids and there was some guys in my neighborhood that were you know effectively getting up as a young kid you want it you you want to make stuff and you want friends and peers to see it and I think graffiti in a city environment is a perfect outlet you know I'd go around and photograph like what I'm shooting stuff in the heights or the Bronx and you know just make doubles triples and send them little packets to people and they'd send packets back and it sort of got me thinking about the world you know from my parents house in Jersey City who was the first like famous graffiti writer that you encountered I think in Jersey City there was a guy called what for and he was up everywhere and there was him there was this guy do this another young I mean a little older than me but they were the kind of kids that were the same kids that when I started going to clubs were out went around and what clubs are you going to MK power house went disco mm sorry my colleague before that quick downtown I was hungry for it you know I just grew up sort of interested in people interested in being out of my house out of my neighborhood it drew me out of you know out of my shell did you come up with the tag cause like was it the first name you you ran with no it was a it was probably the second yeah what was your original that's that's my business no yeah I started as I started to paint more and I was you know it got to a point where I was like all right this is something I think I'm gonna do for a while I just wanted to think of letters that sort of interacted with each other and in a good way and purely a visual thing how kws connects and I like the fact that it didn't have it didn't exist it didn't have like it wasn't a thing just sort of lettering that works and I I liked the sound there was like a short strong mark so when you finished high school you end up going to SVA did you see a career path at that point I went to school of visual arts as an illustration major I was thinking practical I was thinking you know what would I what could I do to support something in the arts after college I got out I worked in animation it wasn't that I was interested in animation I just liked to paint and I was like oh great I'll get paid to paint every day did you have any sense working on Doug that it was gonna be disliked you know millennial icon down is it I'm not aware of this if you're if you're under 30 and you work at complex like Doug is everything for you amazing I'm glad to know Doug is even remembered it let me paint it put money in my pocket I moved out of my house and moved to Lower East Side having a steady check allowed me to think about other things during your time in college that's sort of when your work goes from being traditional graffiti to at least the seeds of what people see today yeah where did the impulse to start removing the lettering from what you were doing come so when I paint the first billboard at that time it was the time of like productions what pieces when you know there would be crews getting together doing these elaborate murals and when I painted over billboard it was almost like I had all that but I was only on a highway for 40 minutes painting and you know just seeing the picture and I started thinking about how it said it into a time frame and the parallels between graffiti and advertising and then I just sort of got more interested in that so I just focus on you know taking out ads and painting over them and we swapping them during daylight or I would yeah I would take them home I'd paint them in my house and I would just go and walk swap them out ask people to move in in Manhattan I'd be like excuse me you'd get out of the way because I just assumed because the hinges are on the top and they would open like this so it's kind of an ordeal and yeah they wouldn't think twice because there wasn't a like there wasn't the street art frenzy they just thought you a worker guy I think I'm starting to do the the phone booths kind of just opened up the audience you know I never imagined that people in the fashion world would be interested in that kind of stuff and in fact I thought that I would get lawsuit so I really thought like if I met this person I'd get some sort of anger and it wasn't the case it was just sort of you know I don't know being accepted or like just it starts to get picked up like in a lot of magazines and I remember Terry and or Trisha Jones from ID magazine we're like some of the earliest supporters and in 97 they ran an article on me and they introduced me to Sauer i collette when collette first open I did a exhibition there and you know I would use like different opportunities to get to different cities to do street work do you recall the first piece that you did that introduced the skull with the cross that eyes on yeah I think it was a Marvel billboard that I painted in Jersey City after just looking at the images thinking of you know scholars being like such a universal image you can be in different countries and cause my I mean cause doesn't make sense anyway but you know might not read or connect with somebody but scholar skulls in every culture after you get out of school fairly quickly you end up traveling to Japan one of my best friends in school this guy at sushi it was from Tokyo and his brother invited me as a trade so I made a painting and trade for a trip through stash and future and those guys I was aware of what was going on there with the guys at hectic and you go from bathing ape and so that first trip I went I met up with the guys at hectic and Hiroshi for jawar like every one of them were all super young so everybody's real hospitable and showed me around and it was a great trip at what point were you able to quit the nine-to-five and pursue art maybe 98 possibly so fairly quickly after yes yes I mean I had no no ties to working and what was the work that was bringing in money at that point I guess in 99 was my first toy how did that happen - going to Tokyo through meeting her car from bounty hunter and you know he was making these small run toys he did you know somewhat James Jarvis and some of his own toys they asked me if I want to make a toy and I was kind of like like I wanted to make sculpture I never really thought about making a toy but it would be great to see my work in three dimensional you know as a three dimensional form so what inspired the sort of Mickey Mouse design of that it was really like you know I was painting over these phone books his iconic sort of imagery of Kate Moss of Turlington and so I thought when I if I were to do a toy what would I you know it would need to be some sort of derivative of something recognizable to make sense within the work that I make if you start to look at all animations there's a similar body form as it gloves or boots or whatever and I just like the fact that depending on how something is built and that kind of takes the position so Mickey would be like the one that everybody knows but they'll be you know a bunch of different other animations that pretty much more or less are making without a few twists you know and then it's just sort of grew from there I mean when I had companion night there was always an edition of 503 colorways and I would just go a hectic was the ones that funded it but I'd have you know instead of taking money I just took stock of toys fast forward to 2002 I started my own website and I think that was like it just really changed things hasser in the beginning you know I'd bring I'd bring these pieces to a store and they take you know six maybe three on consignment not tell me when they sold out I'd have to wait two months to get paid or pay within their quarterly cycle or whatever it you know whatever thing you agreed to just to get it in and then you start a website and you make something and it sells and it goes right to the end user I just sort of opened my eyes to a larger audience that I wasn't aware of ditching the middleman was a turning point that talked cause he could succeed by both embracing the system and disrupting it once I have a painting complete or the drawing complete I'll come and I'll draw it just in pencil and then I'll sit in front of it with these tables and these are like small versions of all the paint that I use and so instead of picking a color on the computer I'm just doing it all just you know feeling the size of the painting and responding to it and then this also helps me with working with assistants you know now we have a cos all the paint is the sort of system we developed that's all number coded and then everybody can you just refer to that basically the next you know next step is we're here it's a very similar to printing process so first you put all the base coats in mm-hm and then you know round 2 would be the shadows round 3 would be the black line I mean I could think about paintings when you're sitting here hours and hours that you know you're really focused on the work but the same time your mind's drifting and you're thinking about whether it's your family life work life like all you know it just gives you tons of time to think when you know you're doing these works that have sort of deconstructed icons right yeah it's more of just a feat like creating an overall feeling it doesn't really I'm not I'm not concerned about like oh this is this icon it comes from this narrative like to me that means nothing it's just sort of you know I started working so say some of the Schulz line work what you're seeing here I just liked you know even though I painted in a very meticulous way I just like the fluidity of it and kind of how it exists and it was something that didn't really have in my work before so I started to incorporate it more but yeah there's there's so many different things that I've pulled from at this point so in 2008 you had your first show with Emmanuel Peres tonight you know I did a show in Miami with the Manuel parrot that was curated by Pharrell if Pharrell's actually the person that introduced us and the show was a combination of paintings that Pharrell owned and paintings that I made for the show I was never thinking I didn't really understand a gallery system or representation or kind of like more than just putting you work in a space you know how does all that work it doesn't oh no I mean you just really have to be smart and know who you're working with and trust are you working with and I mean I'm fortunate to have somebody like Parton who is very just young and ambitious and everywhere and how much strategy and thought goes into what you want to present you know for any given show I'd love to respond like to the architecture of spaces and I know I have um shows in Hong Kong Tokyo Korea like all next year usually I build models for for all the exhibitions so I'd like to scale sort of architectural models so you can look at what the work will look like yes so when this is done in photographed I'll have it to scale version like even though we have like an unfinished version just as I'm thinking about spots and you know this piece could maybe go to this gallery or this could go you know I'm pretty thorough is how I sort of compose exhibitions but I also leave a lot of opportunity for change I think a lot of complexes audience first were introduced to your work through that Kanye covered how did that happen yeah I mean that's just something he reached out to me he said he had discover he wanted me to work on and um it's funny because I spoke to Takashi about it and because the country was like oh there's so many changes and you know like a finder of like things that got shot down and I was thinking like aw man this is gonna be tough and he asked me to do this thing I said sure I mean we had it done from beginning to end like I think in two weeks just yeah you want to do this oh yeah I want to do it okay all right cool how did you end up getting the companion into the Macy's Day Parade how did they end up getting me to make it comes now they called call me and at first I was like the Macy's want you know and the woman I was talking to there I was talking about inviting me to the parade and putting you know I was really interested in putting me in the same lineup as a lot of these characters that I kind of you know used for my work and that's I don't know I just thought I was like well I can't believe I'm getting this phone call because they seems to fully understand what I'm doing and still yet they're inviting me to to be part of the parade and I've never made inflatable before that and it just seemed like it's sort of surreal opportunity and of course you know it so I went for it did you feel like that level of exposure changed things for you yeah I think that was sort of one of the first like America you know like before that I was so focused on making work in Tokyo and Asia and I felt like I had my strength and my market over there and like Thanksgiving Day Parade it's like I grew up on that you know like my cousins they're gonna see like even if I don't tell them they're seeing this or you know it it was a different thing so I went and I walked about 50 yards in front of the balloon it was interesting because I got to hear kids you know and their responses to it which I didn't think of before there's just there's plenty that's here kids cheering for other balloons like spongebob and being super amped and and then being like mom what is that my eyes it's sad it's like like it was like - like - like mood changer you know you've done several Footwear collaborations probably the better part of a half dozen at this point do you have a favorite most recently the projects were Jordan I feel like you know licensed sneaker I did for them was in 2007 so it was almost like a 10-year stretch where I wasn't even thinking about sneakers you know it's it's it's fun because I'll do something like that I'll be fully invested in it for a moment and then I'll click over and I won't think about that and it'll just get into other work so you can see kind of you know like whatever I'm working on at the time that's what ends up in the product with you know so you know until it's was a toy from 2004 and the shoes came up in 2005 and as I go I tend to always yeah I like to kind of take something and then build on it and build on and build on it just sort of reinforce it and make it have a stronger existence how did the Uniqlo thing happen it's funny actually came full circle because an ego was a creative director before this line of code and I know Katayama Masamichi carry on who designed the studio for me is there a global like designer for their shops and the aesthetic of them and so there was these connections Uniqlo and then like I knew they were there and then eventually I was just sort of asked if I'd be interested I just felt like I want it like I knew I had this audience and they weren't being served you know they weren't like yeah I don't want somebody to buy one of my t-shirts for $200 you know I want I wanted to kind of like I want to be a t-shirt they could buy it I could wear anything throw it out I felt like I needed to do something to kind of exist on a more candid level and Uniqlo I felt great about them because you know the quality is good and they have mm some what stores you know like we just blanket it the globe a desire to speak to a new audience pushed cause to infuse art in non-traditional places bucking the conventional wisdom that separated fine and commercial art at this point you've done some incredibly remarkable things whether it's the the Macy's float or the VMAs doing all of the signage and the moon man and you have galleries and museums shows what are the sort of Grails that you still you're looking at like I would like to get that done before it's over I kind of like what I'm doing and I just want to do what I'm doing better you know I don't I don't have a key thing like I have to do this when you say do better what do you mean I don't know maybe edit something maybe it better or create it better or you know work in a medium like I've never worked in marble or there's some things like that like stone or like I'm just curious about and I've been saying this for you know eight ten years of my mind and I haven't really like I should go to a got a foundry and do it but um so there's these things at just the surfing system I had that I never really done when you think about I mean I can't even wrap my mind around how much one of those 150 or 200 foot companion I wish I had 150 foot confine my largest that maybe was 30 feet there they get much bigger it doesn't sound that big but like this is 27 feet to the skylight oh okay so that yet that's pretty good so thorough yeah I mean with the with the wood sculptures I the guy who I make them with is sort of a partner in the whole thing okay so you're not putting up all of the money you so he's helping me but in in general I do for the most part with most of my projects put up all the money you know whether it's silkscreen editions toys I just like to do that because it just gives me complete control I mean I could I could see something and suddenly I like it and kill it or squash it and not have any second thoughts about it first wood piece we made was the tallest of 30 feet we're just in the process of installing permanently at the airport in Qatar and that we yeah that's sort of where I this day is out you know you've explored several different styles and different chambers right like this squiggly thing you sort of started to deconstruct you know the shapes probably around 2008 or so with the neon and and then you went had a period where everything was all red how do you make those creative decisions like alright woke up that morning like this is what I want to do you know it's not a lot of times like right now there's a lot of color going on in the work and eventually I'll kneel feel like I'll repel against it and want to get into a new body of work and I don't really set any guidelines on when something needs to be finished or like a certain type of imagery it needs to be pushed out of the work I just sort of let things change and cross pollinate you know you end up in these places you now have to manage a pretty decent-sized team I would imagine to produce all the work and deal with yeah all logistics it's not we're actually remarkably small I think for a studio and we just hired some more people better part-time and now we're at ten okay but yeah for a small Brooklyn studio I think we project a much larger persona what it what is it like managing those 10 people like what is cause it's you know what sometimes I grew over time it's it's um it took a long it took a real learning curve to have my first assistant and have somebody in the studio with me cuz before that I was spending just all day by myself in the space and then as I grew you know opportunities grew and you can you know like if we're working in this pink you know I know that pink has had probably about 13 coats with that same pink in the same shape physically I just you know I wouldn't be able to get the stuff done if it was me doing the same coat and so you sort of navigate how to let people into your practice without changing your practice when did you get to the point where you felt like some sort of financial stability or like this is this is gonna work out this is gonna be okay I've always felt financially stable my sounds sounds cocky or whatever but I've always you know I figured like look or you grew up it's there's not much to to go down you know like like I always felt super at every point in my of my work I mean I could just be really naively optimistic but I felt super fortunate to be at the moment where I am you know you know you could lose it you can lose it and gain it it's not but it's not like you're not dying you haven't had a lot of lows from what I can tell you think about like I do I don't know I feel sometimes I you know yeah I feel like things have been going great and then maybe you're not seeing it which is good but um you you feel that you feel like a real sort of urgency like I'm I'm excited about the doing the next thing or doing you know what can I make what can I do kind of seeing that whatever I see something I respond to it and when I'm better it so I'm constantly thinking about what I can do to push my work to push myself do you think about sort of the pressure to constantly outdo yourself no I just set really low expectations of myself you know you know it's like I say you can't you can't worry about those things are you will you will paralyze yourself and you hurt when I was doing Graf and I started doing phone booths a lot of Graf guys were like the hell is that you know they just like dude that's not that's not real graft that's like that's some other thing and then I started doing toys and there's just like that's like the worst word and in the graph community is a toy you can't really put a lot of weight behind others opinions because they're not you and they're not gonna really understand where you see things can go and you know either things could play oh they cannot play out but at least are your choices they're not somebody else in your ear directing you like once you start trying to please people I feel like you're just grasping at nothing [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Complex

Views: 940,526

Rating: 4.9386444 out of 5

Keywords: funny, the kimpsons, cool, complex originals, fine art, current affairs, sneakers, Pharrell, sneakerhead, edgy, Noah Callahan-Bever, interview, news, futura, street art, graffiti, Blueprint the show, japan, pop art, companions, blueprint, young man, kaws and uniqlo, Complex, Doug, hennessy, culture, Nigo, graf artists, complex tv, KAWS, modern art, complex, complex media, entertainment, kaws jordans

Id: UMH8b-Ip5uM

Length: 25min 2sec (1502 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 20 2017