Ken Kagami's Snoopy Sketches at Misako & Rosen at Post-Fair

Ken Kagami's exhibition of Snoopy sketches at Misako & Rosen at Post-Fair challenges the critic's earlier view that subverting cute aesthetics is always compelling. Kagami's work features Charlie Brown and Snoopy in absurd scenarios—Snoopy as a shark chasing Charlie Brown, Snoopy pointing at Charlie Brown's underwear, and their heads stacked as a totem pole. The critic notes that Kagami's distortions do not exaggerate or invert the characters' original personas from Charles Schulz's Peanuts; instead, they strip away narrative context. Kagami has stated in a 2015 interview with The Hundreds that he uses Snoopy because it is easy to draw and customize. He previously drew volunteers' penises at Frieze London in 2015, claiming the work was about entertaining himself, not critiquing the art world. The critic finds that the most effective sketches are those that refuse to construct a relationship between boy and beast, serving as absurdist formal experiments. However, the critic argues that pop icon disruption typically relies on preexisting associations, and Kagami's attempts to shed them feel frustrating. The review suggests Kagami may aim to corrupt rather than disrupt.