Good Grief, Charlie Brown! Celebrating Snoopy and the Enduring Power of Peanuts.
Kagami is known for transforming everyday objects into perverse or inverse versions of themselves.
Known for his subversive take on popular culture, Japanese artist Ken Kagami is an art prankster who has produced hundred, if not thousands, of drawings of Charlie Brown and Snoopy.
Ken Kagami plays with the simplicity of the form and ease of line, creating multiple and inventive reinterpretations of Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts characters for his 'Charpee' Instagram series, albeit with rather fantastical results. His treatment is always affectionate and reflects his love of both the downtrodden Charlie Brown and the transcendent non-conformity of Snoopy.
He draws on a schoolboy-ish love of 'poos and penises' to bring an absurd quality to his work, underlining the juxtapositions he chooses to make about the nature of contemporary pop culture. The repetition and consistency of his approach belies the curious idiosyncrasies his characters embody.
In his multi-faceted practice, Kagami draws on the signs and symbols of pop culture to present often tongue-in-cheek scenarios and dilemmas that quesiton identity and masculinity. Often posing the question of why we are so in thrall to such icons, Kagami's work is also celebratory and joyous, revelling in the strange and silly juxtapositions he engineers.
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