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I Can’t Feel My Face runs concurrently with KAWS’ first solo exhibition of new work at Honor Fraser Gallery.

Los Angeles, CA (February 3, 2009)– Royal/T, Culver City’s Japanese inspired shop/café/exhibition space, is pleased to welcome KAWS, New York based artist and designer, as the curator of their spring group exhibition, I Can’t Feel My Face. Selected from Susan Hancock’s collection and on view at Royal/T from February 22 through September 7, I Can’t Feel My Face features works by over 25 contemporary artists.


I Can’t Feel My Face shares its title with a painting by KAWS and is a centerpiece of the exhibition, which explores the theme of contemporary portraiture as a vehicle of inherent emotive expression. The faces and figures in the works evoke a range of feelings and offer a view into the fractured imagery and energy of the creative mind. Faces are transposed and contorted, abstracted and obliterated, highly detailed or conversely stripped down to the simplest of lines. Like a human face, the images are each individual, at once recognizable but also unique. Andre Ethier’s one-eyed painting, “The Bitch is Back,” unnerves and unsettles in its lush directness. In a multiplication of stick-figure forms, the vibrating energy in the cigarette paper collage by Oliver Payne and Nick Relph has an immediate electric pull.

I Can’t Feel My Face, includes works by Olaf Breuning, Carol Dunham, Andre Ethier, Tom Friedman, Misaki Kawai, Hideaki Kawashima, KAWS, Mike Kelley, Ted Mineo, Takashi Murakami, Mr., Yoshimoto Nara, Oliver Payne & Nick Relph, Richard Prince, William Sasnal, David Shrigley, Jim Torok and Yan Pei-Ming.

The Long Way Home, the first solo exhibition of new works by KAWS in Los Angeles, will be on view concurrently at Honor Fraser Gallery, Culver City. New large paintings are included in the exhibition and are populated with his usual cross-section of familiar cultural icons. Painted with precise execution, the resulting pieces feature the trademark graphic quality inherent in his work. The paintings are joined by a large life-size Chum that acts as a sentry in the space, watching over the works while also playing with scale and proportion. The exhibition will open on February 21 from 6 – 8 pm and runs through April 4, 2009.

On the occasion of the exhibition at Royal/T, KAWS has designed a limited edition OriginalFake T-shirt that is available exclusively at Royal/T for $68.

A preview of the I Can’t Feel My Face will take place February 20, 8pm-12am at Royal/T. To request coverage, please contact Sarah Williams, sarah@foryourart.com.

About KAWS
KAWS is a New York-based artist and designer. Early in his career, he garnered attention as a graffiti artist creating cartoon-style characters and images on bus shelters and billboards. As his popularity began to grow, he branched out producing vinyl toys, sculpture and clothing. Over his career, KAWS, who has his own clothing line and a boutique in Tokyo, both named OriginalFake, has re-contextualized images of pop-culture icons including the Simpsons, Smurfs, Michelin Man, and Mickey Mouse. His work garnered notice from many commercial brands resulting in collaborations with A Bathing Ape, Commes des Garcons, Burton, and Vans. In 2008 KAWS held his first solo exhibitions of his paintings and sculpture in the United States at Gering & Lopez Gallery, New York and Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Miami, FL. In 2008 he was also asked to design Kayne West’s 808s and Heartbreak album cover. He has had solo exhibitions in Tokyo at the BAPE Gallery, Tokyo First, Parco Gallery and in Paris at Colette. In 2009 KAWS will have his first solo museum show at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Connecticut and will also be included in the group exhibition Plastic Culture: Legacies of Pop 1962 – 2008 at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, United Kingdom.
www.kawsone.com

About Royal/T
Royal/T is a playful blending of café, concept shop and art exhibition space. The space reflects the interior realm of fantasy that strongly influences the artists included in owner Susan Hancock’s collection. Royal/T Cafe is inspired by the meido kissa (maid café) phenomena of Akihabara—Tokyo’s electronic district. Recontextualizing the underground culture of Japan that celebrates cosplay (costume play) waitresses dress in maid uniforms, with a Lolita-esque touch and the cafe serves a fusion of French and Japanese cuisine with local and organic California style. The art space showcases curated exhibitions with a focus on Japanese contemporary art; and an inventive concept store emulates the collections’ sophistication—a fusion of pop culture and high-end design.