While the eyes of the art loving community worldwide were recently anchored to the events at Basel Week Miami, Brian Donnely aka KAWS picked an even more tropical surrounding for his latest exhibition. In collaboration with Galerie Perrotin and Art Saint Barth, the Brooklyn-based artist opened Permanent Vacation on November 26th, at Eden Rock Gallery at Eden Rock – St Barths hotel in the Caribbean.
Presenting six new paintings, the show includes five black and white works from his Man’s Best Friend series of Charles M. Schultz inspired works and the colorful show title piece. The monochrome works are artist’s nod to the iconic Peanuts comics, in which he reinvents these iconic characters, this time with signature XX’s for the eyes. By playing with close up perspectives and repetition, he has created abstract works from recognizable, familiar pop culture imagery, giving just enough info for viewers to recognize Woodstock, Snoopy or Charlie Brown. The title piece of the show, Permanent Vacation, is from his series of shaped colorful panels where borders and depth become irrelevant. Using a bold, saturated palette of bright colors, this piece is painted with abstract elements that are completely independent from the dolphin shape of the piece, matching the bright and tropical setting of the show and the gallery.
Photo credit: Tom & Tori.
Discuss KAWS here.
