Experience KAWS at the Parrish Art Museum Before He's Gone

Without getting into the legacy of Marcel Duchamp, Dada, Warhol and Pop art, broken borders between “high” and “low” culture, the rise of street art, or statements about consumerism and the exploration of visual language, can we just say that paintings and sculptures by KAWS are really fun to look at? Is this not a metric from which art should be judged? Are we allowed to just like a thing and the feelings it evokes?

On view at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill through Oct. 13, KAWS: Time Off is the first significant exhibition of the artist’s work on the East End, and with less than a month remaining in the show’s run, it’s worth catching before it’s gone.

The show features work from the past decade, spread across two spaces, including 12 paintings in the Louis Koenig Meisel Gallery, and a captivating arrangement of 11 bronze “Companion” sculptures painted black in the expansive Harriet and Esteban Vicente Gallery. The sculptures hold the museum’s center, taking excellent advantage of the architecture, and each other, to become the most compelling part of this wholly delicious exhibition.

First, visitors will encounter the large selection of paintings including four “Monster Cereal” box images of the iconic General Mills cereal mascots — Count Chocula (“Brown Count”), Frankenberry (“Purple Franken”), Boo Berry (“Blue Boo”) and Frute Brute (“Green Frute”) — based on KAWS’ 2022 box designs and created specifically for this exhibition. Despite having exactitude reminiscent of a print, these were in fact painted by hand, and they offer a wonderful mix of Pop sensibility mixed with nostalgia for those who grew up enjoying Monster cereals year-round, or (after 2009) celebrating their limited time on store shelves during Halloween season.

Small plastic versions of the KAWS monster mascots, mimicking old cereal box prizes, are available in the Parrish gift shop along with a beautifully illustrated book about his work, KAWS by Dan Nadel, Thomas Crow, Clare Lilley and Jason Schmidt.

Also on view is a 2016 series of five Snoopy paintings, “Five Suspects,” each featuring a colorful composition within a canvas shaped like Charles Shulz’ famous character, along with three other cutout paintings with cartoonish designs within their shapes, all tapping into recognizable icons, like Felix the Cat, and subverting them by painting more manipulated pop-culture images inside.

KAWS: Time Off really grabs an emotional foothold upon encountering the bronze sculptures featuring his “Companion” characters, which have appeared in various sculptural forms, sizes and materials in an array of settings throughout his career. Based most obviously on Mickey Mouse, the Michelin Man, the Muppets and, most recently, the Cereal Monsters, KAWS’ Companions have dominated landscapes in Hong Kong as enormous inflatable cartoons, or added humor to the English countryside as towering wooden figures. They’ve also been made as smaller and far more affordable limited-edition vinyl toys.

The unforgettable, cartoonish images with Xs for eyes and skull and crossbones heads first appeared in the 1990s painted over perfume and fashion ads in Manhattan bus stop and payphone kiosks when KAWS, real name Brian Donnelly, was getting his start and making a name for himself on the street.

At the Parrish, the black shapes, both glossy and matte, strike thoughtful poses and interact with the viewer and the other sculptures, creating drama and real, surprising feelings of isolation and loneliness, sadness, thoughtful contemplation and even a bit of sass or indignance. In a world where nothing happens unless it’s on social media, the figures beg to be photographed in artful compositions or simple, crude selfies by those who may be a bit new to art and museums.

After all, KAWS crosses over into fashion, sneaker culture, toy collecting and pop culture in a very different way than, for example, his wife Julia Chiang whose subtle and delicate paintings and ceramics quietly draw people in to the rooms next door. Julia Chiang: The Glows and The Blows, is also on view through Oct. 13.

Some of KAWS’ critics seem to disapprove of the artist’s accessibility and mass appeal, scoffing at the idea that an enthusiastic viewer might want to pose next to a sculpture for the ‘gram, or buy a miniature vinyl version of characters represented in his larger work. But there’s a reason he has that appeal, and it’s not simply the drive to collect something of increasing value or to get in with what’s hot at the time.

He’s performing a bit of magic, making the viewer experience real human feelings and emotions when presented with his cartoon characters, and this becomes abundantly clear when seeing the work in person. Drop by the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, located at 279 Montauk Highway, before Oct. 13 and see for yourself.

Learn more at parrishart.org.