KAWS, Wooden Companion (2013), via More Gallery
Opened during Basel Week Switzerland, More Gallery is presenting a solo exhibition by American artist KAWS, entitled “GISWIL,” composed of paintings and two large-scale wooden sculptures culled from the artist’s recent output.
KAWS, Wooden Companion (2013), via More Gallery
Born in 1974 in Jersey City, New Jersey as Brian Donnelly, KAWS has worked out of New York City for the past several years as an artist and toy designer, currently residing in Brooklyn. He began his artistic career as a graffiti artist, using billboards, buses. and phone booth advertisements in Jersey City as his canvases. After graduating from the School of Visual Arts with a BFA in Illustration in 1996, KAWS would spend several years working for Disney, painting animation backgrounds and making contributions to the television series 101 Dalmations, Daria, and Doug.
KAWS, Wooden Companion (2013), via More Gallery
In the late 1990s, KAWS began designing limited edition toys, which gained widespread acclaim for his work, particularly in Japan. His toys, and later, clothing items, have been distributed by companies such as Original Fake, Burton, Nike, Vans, A Bathing Ape, and Comme de Garçons. He participated in the Beautiful Losers traveling exhibition in 2009, and he is known for blurring the line between fine art and mass-produced merchandise.  Here, the artist turns his commercial arts background towards a focus on the gallery world, with a series of works that illustrate his combined practice between both fields.
KAWS, Wooden Companion (2013), via More Gallery
Named after the Swiss town where More Gallery is located, the show includes a new piece entitled Massive Wooden Companion, inspired by the novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. The original figure, Companion, was a grayscale figure based on Mickey Mouse.  A signature character developed by KAWS and partially informed by his years working as a commercial animator, Companion has become somewhat of a signature piece of KAWS’s output, and was even made into a balloon for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2012.  At More Gallery, however, Companion returns to the art world in comically self-aware fashion, turned back into a monumental form that belies its context and the expectations surrounding a major gallery exhibition.  The work also brings to mind the recent wooden sculptures of Paul McCarthy, which took a similar personal flair to the Disney-fied icons of children’s pop culture.
KAWS, Wooden Companion (2013), via More Gallery
Showcasing the artist’s highly refined body of work, and his continued exploration of the blurry lines between art and commerce, KAWS’s current show has offered a welcome trip off the beaten path for Swiss fair goers and art lovers this summer, and will continue to do so for the next month. Â GISWIL, which opened on June 9th, will continue at More Gallery in Basel, open every Saturday and Sunday from 11am until 5pm, through August 26.
—E. Baker
Related Links:
Exhibition Page [More Gallery]
