KAWS Bootleg Custom Show Curated by Strangecat Toys Opens March 15 at Redefine Gallery in Orlando

Strangecat Toys presents Misappropriated Icon: a KAWS Bootleg custom show! 

Read about this show on Hypebeast (!!!)

Opens March 15 at Redefine Gallery

29 South Orange Ave

Orlando, FL

Artist roster:

• Fer NG
• Ink Visuals
• Jay222
• JC Rivera
• Jellykoe
• Jesse Hernandez
• Mike Fudge
• MP Gautheron
• Nugglife
• Prime
• Shiffa
• The Bots
• Tomadachi Island

Jason Freeny Customizes KAWS Companion Figure

Popular custom toy artist, illustrator and all-around awesome dude Jason Freeny released images this week of his next beautiful custom toy project: a KAWS Companion! While this piece has been manufactured in a factory-produced anatomical variant before, Jason wanted to present his own interpretation of a "dissected" Companion as he has done for countless other pop culture characters.

Jason's WIP custom KAWS figure was even covered on a popular site called "Highsnobiety" and KAWS himself dropped in on Jason's IG comments section to weigh in. All in all, a spectacular and very public start to a one-off WIP toy project. Not sure if I've ever seen a custom toy sculpture get this much coverage before it was even finished! Great work, Jason, this one is looking awesome so far!

KAWS x Robert Lazzarini x JPK Custom

Jon-Paul Kasier's latest delivered commission is a KAWS piece. This particular KAWS piece is a Robert Lazzarini interpreted version of the KAWS companion. Robert Lazzarini is well known for his distorted perspective on familiar objects and art forms. Jon-Paul Kaiser enhanced this warped look even further, by making the flesh of the character seem twisted and distorted as well. Accentuating the original pieces lines and curves, Jon-Paul Kaiser did a wonderful job making this custom piece represent his own style of work. Photography, as with all of Jon-Paul Kaiser's pieces, is by Justin Allfree. For anyone interested in a commissioned piece, be sure to contact Jon-Paul Kaiser and get on his list.

- Mark-Anthony

Google+

Custom Micro Foomis by Zukaty

Zukaty Art completed a couple of colorful customs, created using a Kidrobot Micro Foomi and a Kaws Kubrick Bus Stop. Each set is priced at $65 plus shipping and includes a custom painted Kaws Kubrick Bus Stop, as well as a custom painted Micro Foomi. Zukaty made the figure and Bus Stop coincide, making each set match. To top it off, Zukaty is also including the original kaws Kubrick figures, along with the original packaging. These would make a nice colorful addition to any collection.

 - Mark-Anthony

Google+

B-KAWS?! What the hell.... not this shit again

When Apologies to Banksy did it, I was all hmmm.... and now we have Neccessaries Toy Foundation producing a KAWS "parody" figure. *le sigh*

Here's the copy, complete with ALL CAPS as it was presented to us:

B-KAWZ
APPROPRIATING THE APPROPRIATOR
(THIS IS A PARODY, IT IS ONLY A PARODY, DO NOT ADJUST YOUR RATIONALE)

B-KAWZ there isn't enough shit at Comicon already
B-KAWZ you are not a very discerning toy collector
B-KAWZ absolutely everyone bastardizes everyone else
B-KAWZ art imitating art is still art, geddit?

Call it what you will, is it a blatant rip-off or a noble tribute?
We at Necessaries Toy Foundation consider it a homage
to two successful and very respected artists.

It is also commentary and parody.

Is it an original idea? We think it is, but only in an esoteric sense.
In fact, it is a very original idea if you are a lateral thinker.

Appropriator? Perpetrator? Instigator?
It is what it is, and I yam what I yam.

B-KAWZ is a metaphor du jour. Merely this and nothing more . . .
 
11 inches tall
gold edition of 250 
$100 each

Kaws of Death - Bubonic Edition by 2bitHACK

2bitHack is at it again, with the latest colorway for his Kaws of Death carded figure. For those who don't know, the figure is inspired by the big hoopla caused by Kaws, and his lawyers, regarding the way some of Kaws' figures were displayed. It's summed up nicely here, by Jeremy Brautman. 2bitHack loves controversy and is also really good at making bootleg figures. His latest Kaws of Death version, Bubonic, is limited to 20 pieces and will retail for $60 plus shipping. Expect to see these become available in 2bitHacks online shop on August 15th, at 10AM PST.

One can imagine that if these sell out, 2bitHack will go for the typical Kaws 3 peat and create the "OG" colorway. Maybe then a triple carded set will come to fruition in the future. DCON maybe??

- Mark-Anthony

OsirisOrion: KAWS @ The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum 6/27/10 Ridgefield, CT

Props to my man Osiris for posting up the only video of this exhibit! Nicely done!

KAWS @ The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum 6/27/10 Ridgefield, CT from OsirisOrion on Vimeo.

OsirisOrion: KAWS @ The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum 6/27/10 Ridgefield, CT

Designer Toy people in mainstream media

I was both amused and a little unnerved this morning when I flipped open this month’s issue of Fast Company magazine and poked through their “100 Most Creative People in Business” article… A big full-page pic of a giant red KAWS figure was on page 95! WTF?!
On further investigation, I found that 3 of the 100 people Fast Company chose are in the designer toy industry!

Here they are:
#54: Masamichi Katayama, Principal at Wonderwall
#56: Charles Rivkin, President & CEO of W!ldbrain (FYI Wildbrain owns part or all of Kidrobot)
#70: Brian Donnelly (KAWS): Artist/designer/owner of OriginalFake

This mainstream media coverage of players in our little designer toy industry is exciting, to be sure, but does this mean that our industry is now considered “legitimate”? And if art toys are now legit, is that good or bad? I mean, as a store owner, I can only be happy that more and more people are getting turned on to designer toys. More people buying toys means more customers for the shops. But, when a subversive idea hits the mainstream, does it continue to be subversive?

And what will happen to our subversive “toys” once the general population gets their hooks in? Will our toys become “Disney-fied”? Will a sufficient number of artists and companies continue to push the envelope of subversion, and continue to test the limits of people’s comfort zones? Or will many of our beloved manufacturers embrace the growing mass interest in their products by developing more cartoony, less offensive, less explicit art toys so that they can make bigger profits?

I mean, profit is good. Me and Stephanie were collectors first, before we started Tenacious Toys, but without generating some sort of profit, we’d go out of business fast. So profit is a good thing. But would increased profits be worth the price we’d pay once the art toy community starts catering to the masses?