"A new large-scale installation, KAWS: THE MESSAGE occupies the Renaissance courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. The work will stand within the arcaded courtyard from October 29th, 2025 to January 25th, 2026. The installation, commissioned by Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and Fondazione Hillary Merkus Recordati, brings a pair of monumental wooden figures into one of the city's most ordered public spaces."
"Stepping into the open-air stone-paved loggia, the two sculptures each stand over six meters tall. Their material presence is warm and tactile to contrast with the cool grey stonework of the surrounding colonnade. The timber installation KAWS: THE MESSAGE introduces a warmth into the courtyard's otherwise stony atmosphere. The figures face each other across a low plinth, forming an axis aligned with the palace's central passage."
"The artist's use of wood rather than resin or metal allows the sculptures to absorb the light and shadow that shift throughout the day. Their smooth surfaces and minimal joints convey solidity while maintaining a subdued finish. The scale - imposing yet contained - makes the height of the loggia newly perceptible, and reveals how the architecture manages proportion and rhythm."
KAWS: THE MESSAGE places two monumental wooden figures in the arcaded Renaissance courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi in Florence from October 29, 2025 to January 25, 2026. The installation was commissioned by Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and Fondazione Hillary Merkus Recordati. Each sculpture stands over six meters tall and faces its counterpart across a low plinth aligned with the palace's central passage. The timber construction introduces tactile warmth against the cool grey stonework, absorbs shifting light and shadow, and uses smooth surfaces and minimal joints to convey solidity. The work draws a conceptual link to Fra Angelico through a reinterpretation of the Annunciation.
Read at designboom | architecture & design magazine
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