The message these works convey is that the only things that matter are visibility and
repetition
The link between the pop and the sacred is as evident as it is unacknowledged. Take Warhol’s Marilyns, for instance: what could be more pop than that? No artist better than he opened the way to the posthumous mingling (and confusion) of art, design and market: a mix that paved the way for the success of Hirst, Koons, Kusama, Banksy and the latest member of this prolific brood: KAWS.
And yet, behind the electric colors of the screen prints and the Brillo Boxes, behind the choice of popular figures like Mao, lies an operation as basic as it is effective in fusing pop and sacred into one another: repetition. Prayers must be repeated exactly the same way, summer hits all sound alike: I love you, I miss you, you’re the only one, come back to me. It doesn’t matter what is said, as long as it’s said once, a hundred, a thousand times. Take a walk: you’ll see Christ’s face everywhere, alongside those of politicians and celebrities. Rituals are made up of actions and formulas that practically never change, just like television shows.
Warhol understood that repetition erases any value judgment, and that to create icons, great technique wasn’t required, vision was. Not the artist’s vision, mind you: but everyone’s, because an icon, to be one, must first and foremost be seen, seen by as many people as possible. Like Saint Thomas, to believe, one must see. And as a child in Pittsburgh, in the corner of his home devoted to prayer, as was customary in Eastern-rite families, Warhol saw every day the icons of the Virgin, of Christ and of the saints.
The Kaws Family is made up of a multitude of characters who look alike and all resemble something else
When it comes to an artist like KAWS, it makes little sense to draw comparisons or issue judgments based on purely artistic or aesthetic criteria. It would be like evaluating graffiti or tags - and not by chance, KAWS comes from street art - for the message they convey, when in fact the only things that matter, again, are visibility and repetition (perhaps with a dash of coolness). They say a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth: KAWS’s holy family is made up of a multitude of characters who all look alike and all resemble something else, much like a conspiracy theory resembles the truth: characters from Disney, from Elm Street, from The Simpsons. All these symbols of contemporary popular culture become fragments of a broader discourse, one that makes no sense and says little, except for the four letters that make up the artist’s tag. It is as if the space occupied by KAWS’s figures could just as well have been a city wall, an advertising poster, or a stock-market ticker board - and the space in which each of his exhibitions unfolds, a single-brand store. What better expression of the contemporary sacred?
Symbols of a popular culture that become fragments of a discourse that makes no sense and says very little
The Exhibition in San Francisco:
The exhibition "KAWS Family" is currently underway at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). It showcases the artist's creations from the last 30 years, ranging from paintings, drawings, and sculptures to advertising interventions and collaborations for the production of collectible toys. He appropriates popular animated characters and cultural icons, recontextulizing them into familiar images, creating a dialogue between memory and contemporary life.
At the center of the exhibition is Family (2021), a large-scale bronze sculpture that portrays his most beloved characters: Companion, Bff, and Chum. On view until May 3, 2026, curated by Julian Cox.
The Installation in Florence:
KAWS is also present in Italy, with a monumental site-specific installation in the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi. The work, titled The message - a contemporary interpretation of the theme of the Annunciation - is intentionally meant to create a juxtaposition between its characteristic pop language and the Renaissance architecture of the building, as well as the coeval exhibition of Beato Angelico. On view until January 25, curated by Arturo Galansino.
