KAWS EXHIBITION IN TOKYO

the kaws exhibition, ohhh…, was the first thing i hurried to see once i arrived in tokyo. and it was definitely worth hurrying for!

the kaikai kiki gallery is located in the super nice neighbourhood of minato. it’s small, impeccable and perfect to accommodate the kaws exhibition.

i spent a little while in the welcoming space, checking out the pieces. i started a talk with one of the gallery’s assistants and i found a few interesting details. as i imagined, the artist himself had been present for the opening, on may the 2nd.

what surprised me was that apparently all the pieces had been sold that evening. each buyer was allowed to purchase a maximum of 2 pieces. this may be standard procedure, but i’m an outsider so such insight is impressive.

as i was saying, all the paintings in the gallery were sold out at the time of my visit. of course, the gallery still exhibited them until the scheduled end of the show, may the 29th.

here you have the full list of the works on show and all the related details. not the prices though. the prices were confidential.

kaikai kiki is the name of an artist collective initially created by takashi murakami in order to manage his assistants. but it later became more of a platform he shares with similar artists. several up and coming artists benefited from this association. murakami introduces them to the art world and helps the progress of their careers.

kaws aka brian donnelly is an american artist. he is best known for his street art and art toys.

the fact that he had a show in kaikai kiki gallery is not at all surprising if we consider the fact that the gallery belongs indirectly to murakami and that both artists have a common friend and fan: pharell.