KAWS at the Serpentine or when fiction complements reality
KAWS - New Fiction - Serpentine GalleryKAWS - Seeing 2022 at the Serpentine Gallery
The Serpentine Gallery is hosting the first major exhibition of KAWS (b.1974) in London, which includes both physical and augmented reality works, as well as a recreation of the exhibition in the popular online game Fortnite.
Images: KAWS: NEW FICTION exhibition at Serpentine. SEEING (2018), SLEEPLESS (2018), GETTING THE CALL (2018) and WHAT PARTY (2020). © Jonty Wilde (courtesy of KAWS) ·· KAWS, SEEING, 2022, augmented reality sculpture at the Serpentine North Gallery. Courtesy KAWS and Acute Art.
With the possible exception of Jeff Koons, perhaps no other living artist has made such a deft appropriation of contemporary "pop" icons as KAWS (New Jersey, b.1974). Moving between what is traditionally considered "fine art" and commercial product design, KAWS' works draw from contemporary pop culture icons and characters (The Simpsons, Sesame Street...) to create a distinctive style that has proven undeniably successful. In 2019, his "The Kaws Album", which reproduces the famous cover of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" using characters from The Simpsons, was auctioned at Sotheby's Hong Kong for $14.7 million.
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The exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, titled "KAWS: New Fiction" (January 18 - February 27, 2022) further showcases KAWS' interest in making use of widely used digital technologies. All the physical works present in the London exhibition can be viewed anywhere in the world through an Augmented Reality application, in a sort of "artistic ‘Pokémon GO’". In addition, the exhibition has been recreated within the popular online game Fortnite, in what is -in the words of Nate Nanzer, vice president of Epic Games- "the first time Fortnite has made a real-world art exhibit accessible virtually to our millions of players around the world."
"This is an incredibly exciting project for me," KAWS said in remarks published by the Serpentine Gallery. "I always like exploring new mediums for my art. I became interested in working with augmented reality when I realized the quality that can be achieved now. Then came the invitation to work with Fortnite. Now all these things come together in a complex exhibition that takes place in parallel realities."

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