NEW YORK — Sanrio’s internationally famous mouth-less, bow-adorned, white cat Hello Kitty was born in 1974 — a full 14 years after the brand itself was founded — but her birth launched a cultural phenomenon that has become iconic over the past 37 years. The joyful bobtail cat has been a muse for many artists over the years, appearing in front of the Lever House in monumental white sculptures by Tom Sachs and most recently in this year's hit graphic novel “The Nao of Brown,” by Glyn Dillon. Now the New York book publisher Abrams has teamed up with Roger Gastman and Sanrio to release a compendium of Hello Kitty-inspired artwork as well as New York’s first Sanrio-themed art exhibition, set to debut tonight at Openhouse Gallery in SoHo.
The company — whose name actually has Spanish origins — describes the adorable character’s minimal facial features and mission on their website by saying, “Hello Kitty speaks from her heart. She’s Sanrio's ambassador to the world and isn't bound to any particular language.” Some artists and enthusiasts have embraced this ethos, including Gastman, who compiled Abrams’s “Hello Kitty Hello Art!” book and says, “Hello Kitty is a blank canvas. There is no mouth, so you can put whatever emotion on to her.”
Others have explored this blank canvas in different ways, projecting darker, more political, often-personal narratives onto her. The work in “Hello Kitty Hello Art!” shows the far-reaching influence of the character and wide range of interpretation. Japanese-born graffiti artist AIKO contributes her artwork and an essay to the book, explaining how Hello Kitty has not only acted as an artistic source, but also a cultural anchor connecting her to home. Her painting “Hello Kitty Block Party” shows Kitty and several friends partying and tagging a Brooklyn wall.
Kitty's general cuteness also makes her an irresistable target for subversion. In Angry Woebots’s “Angst Kitty,” she’s a hissing and spitting feline surrounded by three apples (signifying her weight) and her big red bow. Bobby Chiu’s “Imposter” depicts Kitty as a grotesque, wrinkly monster wearing fuzzy kitty ears and terrorizing her friends.
Work by blue chip names and graffiti legends, like Niagara, Ron English, Scott Campbell, Shepard Fairey, appear in the book. The show at Openhouse will include many of the book’s artists and more, like Paul Frank, DABS MYLA, RISK, Tristan Eaton of Tokidoki, and Nina Chanel Abney. The anthology of work in “Hello Kitty Hello Art!” and tonight’s exhibition stands as a testament to the versatility of Sanrio’s visually inspiring icon, which, after 37 years, doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.