03.04.2026 – 27.09.2026
The exhibition places the American artist KAWS in dialogue with selected contemporary positions and emphasises the artistic autonomy of his characters, which combine pop, commercial and public art. Comics bear the hallmarks of a universal language and exist in many cultures as a catchy way of telling stories graphically, in words and pictures. Comic characters run through the exhibition as a leitmotif and can be found in the work of a current generation of artists, such as Katherine Bernhardt’s Pink Panther paintings, the ceramic figures by Venezuelan artist Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, and the paintings by Isolde Maria Joham, inspired by Asian manga culture: Artists not only draw on the world of comics as a reference, they also examine specific characters and their psychological dispositions in their depictions, in the illustration of their physiognomy, in gestures and movements.
Artists:
KAWS und Jean Michel Basquiat, Katherine Bernhardt, Cosima von Bonin, Eliza Douglas, Öyvind Fahlström, Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, Futura 2000, Red Grooms, Blalla W. Hallmann, Keith Haring, Gottfried Helnwein, Isolde Maria Joham, Mike Kelley, Michaela Konrad, Brigitte Kowanz, Misleidys Francisca Castillo Pedroso, A. R. Penck, Joyce Pensato, Raymond Pettibon, Ad Reinhardt, Peter Saul, Kenny Scharf, Tschabalala Self, H. C. Westermann, Micha Wille, Sue Williams.
KAWS – Art & Comix
03.04.2026 – 27.09.2026
Albertina Modern
Karlsplatz 5, 1010 Vienna
www.albertina.at
