BOOK: KAWS + Warhol, Phaidon Publications

The exhibition “KAWS + Warhol” (18/5/2024-20/1/2025) is the first to examine the dark themes present in the work of both artists. From skulls to car crashes, both artists deploy their signature bright colors and pop culture references while also presenting the lurid spectacle of death. The dark undercurrents in the work of KAWS and Warhol are magnified and brought into plain sight by presenting the two artists together for the first time. KAWS also responded to Warhol’s embrace of commercialism by presenting a new series of paintings, sculptures, and installations related to his recent commission with General Mills which inserted his signature characters into the packaging for some of America’s most loved cereal boxes including Reese’s Puffs, Count Chocula, and Boo-Berry. The cereal works will be juxtaposed with Warhol’s iconic Brillo Boxes and his lesser-known series of paintings for children. The catalogue “KAWS + Warhol” by Phaidon Publications highlights the artistic intersection of KAWS and Warhol, featuring their takes on death and disaster, advertising, nostalgia, abstraction, skulls, and self-portraiture. Accompanying a major exhibition at The Andy Warhol Museum that will travel internationally, it presents some of the most standout and analogous works from two of the most popular artists of all time.-Dimitris Lempesis