From billions of existing images online, AI programs can recreate a subject, pixel by pixel, having analyzed the likely formations, light, and colours that define a style. It's more like one of those portraits that visualizes the average appearance of people country-by-country by compiling many portraits. It’s more of a compilation than something original.
Then again, there are humans who create art that is directly sourced from other artists. That's the surface-level impression of KAWS (Brian Donnelly, born in New Jersey in 1974), a multimedia artist whose exhibition is coming to an end at the Art Gallery of Ontario on August 5th this year.
With a story that swings from street art in Jersey City and New York City to big-brand collabs with General Mills and Nike, it would be tempting to view KAWS as a kind of new millennium Jean-Michel Basquiat or Keith Haring (another major recent AGO exhibition subject).
But let’s not jump straight to a brash, rigid view of art.
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