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Past Exhibitions

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Image of KAWS' work titled "NO REPLY"

KAWS PRINTS

December 3, 2021–March 27, 2022

Since his groundbreaking solo show at the High Museum of Art in 2012, acclaimed artist KAWS has taken the world by storm with major exhibitions across the United States, Europe, Australia, Asia, and the Middle East. Meanwhile, his monumental sculptural installations, augmented reality sculpture, design collaborations, toys, editioned objects, and related works have seized the attention of a massive and diverse audience. Drawing exclusively from the High’s collection, KAWS PRINTS features all of the artist’s editioned silkscreen prints in the Museum’s collection along with a selection of drawings, color charts, and rare early prints from the artist’s studio.

KAWS made his first screenprints in the late 1990s and has since continued to maintain a printmaking practice alongside his production of paintings, sculpture, and editioned objects (both real and virtual). Through the syntax of silkscreen printing established by such preeminent and illustrious forebears as Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol, which obscured distinctions between high and low art forms, KAWS brings into conflict and accord the worlds of fine art, industrial design, technology, and popular culture. KAWS PRINTS is the first comprehensive exhibition featuring KAWS’s entire output of editioned prints spanning more than twenty years.

Selected Images

Click on an image below to learn more.

  • PAPER SMILE, 2012
    PAPER SMILE, 2012

    KAWS
    American, born 1974
    PAPER SMILE, 2012
    Screenprint on paper
    Gift of the artist, 2012.154
    © KAWS

  • YOU SHOULD KNOW I KNOW, 2015
    YOU SHOULD KNOW I KNOW, 2015

    KAWS
    American, born 1974
    YOU SHOULD KNOW I KNOW, 2015
    Screenprint on paper
    Gift of the artist, 2016.57
    © KAWS

  • THE THINGS THAT COMFORT, 2015
    THE THINGS THAT COMFORT, 2015

    KAWS
    American, born 1974
    THE THINGS THAT COMFORT, 2015
    Screenprint on paper
    Gift of the artist, 2016.59
    © KAWS

    In 2013, KAWS began making shaped canvases whose contours described the bodies of well-known cartoon characters. Contained within their contours are abstract compositions unrelated to the cartoon character itself. KAWS’s contour compositions frame a cacophonous space, consisting of dissonant fragments from other compositions, in which a psychological and spatial interiority is construed and where one is invited to imagine being both in front of and inside the image. KAWS’s first screenprints based on this idea featured Charles Schultz’s character Snoopy from the Peanuts cartoons and were printed on rectangular sheets of paper. KAWS later scaled up these figures for large-format prints and then scaled them down for small prints that are die cut into the shapes of the figures, imitating his earlier shaped canvases.

  • TENSION, 2019
    TENSION, 2019

    KAWS
    American, born 1974
    TENSION, 2019
    Screenprint on paper
    Gift of the artist, 2020.189.1–10
    © KAWS

  • RUNNING CHUM #1, 2000
    RUNNING CHUM #1, 2000

    KAWS
    American, born 1974
    RUNNING CHUM #1, 2000
    Screenprint on paper
    Courtesy of the artist
    © KAWS

  • NO REPLY, 2015
    NO REPLY, 2015

    KAWS
    American, born 1974
    NO REPLY, 2015
    Screenprint on paper
    Gift of the artist, 2016.62.1-10
    © KAWS

  • PRESENTING THE PAST, 2014
    PRESENTING THE PAST, 2014

    KAWS
    American, born 1974
    PRESENTING THE PAST, 2014
    Screenprint on Paper
    Gift of the artist, 2016.58
    © KAWS

  • PIRANHAS WHEN YOU'RE SLEEPING, 2016
    PIRANHAS WHEN YOU'RE SLEEPING, 2016

    KAWS
    American, born 1974
    PIRANHAS WHEN YOU’RE SLEEPING, 2016
    Screenprint on paper
    Gift of the artist, 2018.47
    © KAWS

  • ANKLE BRACELET, 2017
    ANKLE BRACELET, 2017

    KAWS
    American, born 1974
    ANKLE BRACELET, 2017
    Screenprint on paper
    Gift of the artist, 2018.48
    © KAWS

  • UNTITLED, 1999
    UNTITLED, 1999

    KAWS
    American, born 1974
    UNTITLED, 1999
    Screenprint on paper
    Courtesy of the artist
    © KAWS

  • DISSECTED COMPANION, 2006
    DISSECTED COMPANION, 2006

    KAWS
    American, born 1974
    DISSECTED COMPANION, 2006
    Screenprint on paper
    Courtesy of the artist
    © KAWS

  • KAWSBOB (YELLOW), 2011
    KAWSBOB (YELLOW), 2011

    KAWS
    American, born 1974
    KAWSBOB (YELLOW), 2011
    Screenprint on paper
    Courtesy of the artist
    © KAWS

About KAWS

Born in 1974 in Jersey City, New Jersey, Brooklyn-based KAWS engages audiences far beyond the museums and galleries in which he regularly presents his work. KAWS gained a reputation in his youth as a graffiti artist. In 1996, he graduated from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York with a degree in illustration and design. Since then, he has produced a body of influential work that straddles the worlds of art and design to include paintings, murals, large-scale sculptures, street art, and graphic and production design. In addition to his traditional studio practice, KAWS also engages audiences through collaborations with global brands. He often draws inspiration from pop culture imagery, such as cartoon characters, to form a unique artistic vocabulary for his works across various media.

Related

Organization and Support

KAWS PRINTS is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

This exhibition is made possible by

Lead Exhibition Sponsor

Invesco QQQ logo.

Premier Exhibition Series Sponsor

Delta logo.

Premier Exhibition Series Supporters
Sarah and Jim Kennedy
Louise Sams and Jerome Grilhot
Dr. Joan H. Weens Estate
wish Foundation logo.

Benefactor Exhibition Series Supporters
Anne Cox Chambers Foundation
Robin and Hilton Howell

Ambassador Exhibition Supporters
The Antinori Foundation
Corporate Environments
Elizabeth and Chris Willett

Contributing Exhibition Series Supporters
Farideh and Al Azadi
Sandra and Dan Baldwin
The Ron and Lisa Brill Family Charitable Trust
Lucinda W. Bunnen
Marcia and John Donnell
Helen C. Griffith
Mrs. Fay S. Howell/The Howell Fund
Mr. and Mrs. Baxter Jones
The Arthur R. and Ruth D. Lautz Charitable Foundation
Joel Knox and Joan Marmo
Dr. Joe B. Massey
Margot and Danny McCaul
Wade Rakes and Nicholas Miller
The Fred and Rita Richman Fund
In Memory of Elizabeth B. Stephens by Powell Stephens, Preston Stephens, and Sally Stephens Westmoreland
USI Insurance Services
Mrs. Harriet H. Warren

Generous support is also provided by
Alfred and Adele Davis Exhibition Endowment Fund, Anne Cox Chambers Exhibition Fund, Barbara Stewart Exhibition Fund, Dorothy Smith Hopkins Exhibition Endowment Fund, Eleanor McDonald Storza Exhibition Endowment Fund, The Fay and Barrett Howell Exhibition Fund, Forward Arts Foundation Exhibition Endowment Fund, Helen S. Lanier Endowment Fund, Isobel Anne Fraser–Nancy Fraser Parker Exhibition Endowment Fund, John H. and Wilhelmina D. Harland Exhibition Endowment Fund, Katherine Murphy Riley Special Exhibition Endowment Fund, Margaretta Taylor Exhibition Fund, and the RJR Nabisco Exhibition Endowment Fund.