KAWS is an American artist and designer best known for his graffiti, sculptures, paintings, and prints. He has collaborated with many brands and artists, and has exhibited at several museums and galleries.
KAWS is also one of the most recognizable and popular art world celebrities. Celebrities like Travis Scott, Kylie Jenner, and Pharrell Williams have purchased KAWS artwork.
What is KAWS?
KAWS is an American artist who creates artwork and toys. He works in different mediums and often incorporates elements from cartoon characters and pop culture into his work.
Throughout his career KAWS has created a wide variety of artworks, including sculptures, paintings, prints, and toys. He has also produced a series of videos, and has collaborated with various artists. His sculptures are displayed in galleries across the world and have sold for multi-million dollar prices.
He began his career as a graffiti artist in Jersey City, New Jersey and later moved to New York. While in New York he began to focus on subverting images and symbols found in bus shelter advertisements, phone booth ads, and billboards. He became well-known for this, and his recognizable style gained him popularity with the general public.
His early art was rooted in graffiti culture, and his trademark X-d out eyes, skull-and-crossbones head, and cauliflower-like ears are reminiscent of the scribbled lines of the street. His work soon made its way to the art gallery, where it attracted attention from critics and collectors alike.
As a result, KAWS has become a highly respected artist with museum exhibitions worldwide. His works have been exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, High Museum of Art, Modern Art Museum, and the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. He has also been a guest artist at galleries in Japan.
Among his most popular creations is Companion, a melancholic Mickey Mouse figure that conceals its face with cross-glove hands. It has appeared in many incarnations, from vinyl toys to huge sculptures.
The artist is also known for his playful appropriation of cartoon characters, such as The Simpsons and Sponge Bob Square Pants. His artwork reflects the influence of both American and Japanese culture, with references to manga and anime.
The main purpose of KAWS’s work is to disrupt the art industry and a variety of industries in order to give them an alternative point of view. His artworks are aimed at a broad audience, and they are often accompanied by merchandising products that make them more accessible to the average consumer. This blurring of the line between art and commerce has led to the emergence of the KAWS brand, which has since grown into a multi-million dollar business.
What is KAWS’s style?
KAWS is a New York-based graffiti artist and designer who has created a unique style that incorporates cartoon characters into advertisements and street art. His work is popular with celebrities and has been exhibited in galleries around the world.
Originally from Jersey City, NJ, KAWS moved to New York in the 1990s and began adding cartoon-like figures to bus shelter ads and phone booth displays. These images quickly became popular and reached heights never before imagined. He has since reworked famous cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse, The Simpsons, Spongebob Squarepants and the Michelin Man into his own twisted interpretations.
He cites a lot of inspiration from his own childhood, as well as the cartoons and movies that were popular in the 80s and 90s. He also incorporates elements of pop culture into his works, such as the inflated skulls found in many of his pieces.
In 1999, KAWS first forayed into designer vinyl toy-making with a figurine depicting his most famous character, Companion. He subsequently released a line of toys that quickly caught the attention of the global art toy-collecting community.
Today, KAWS’s signature style can be seen on clothing, toys and paintings. He has collaborated with brands, musicians and museums to add his signature style to their products.
One of the most popular collaborations is with the rapper Pharrell Williams, who commissioned him to design his albums 808s and Heartbreak and Clipse (Til the Casket Drops). KAWS has also designed covers for music and media celebrities such as PewDiePie and Kid Cudi.
KAWS has been featured in major art exhibitions in Paris, London, Berlin and Tokyo. He has also had numerous solo shows at galleries across the world, and his work is held in private collections.
His artistic style can be described as a combination of color and line, graphics and the appropriation of pop culture icons such as Mickey Mouse, The Smurfs, Spongebob Squarepants, Snoopy and more. He typically uses the X on his eyes, hands and nose in his paintings, but he has also deconstructs these characters into tight spaces and shapes that create an abstracted style.
What is KAWS’s inspiration?
Brian Donnelly, KAWS’s real name, started painting on walls and trains in the early 1990s in New York. His work was different from other graffiti artists because he would divert advertising posters on bus stops and phone booths, adding small characters : “skully” the pirate skull with cross eyes or “bendy” the extended head of a snake body wrapped around a person featured in the advertising poster.
KAWS is inspired by pop culture, and it’s this that drives his art style. Throughout his career, he has drawn inspiration from Spongebob, Hello Kitty, The Simpsons, Astro Boy, Smurfs and Mickey Mouse.
He also borrows elements from classic paintings and sculptures. For instance, his famous X-signed dolls he created in the early 2000s draw inspiration from popular cartoon characters like Pinocchio and The Simpsons, and have become iconic pieces of art in their own right.
His merchandising of these figurines, which are available on T-shirts, sneakers, sweatshirts, mugs and even key rings and bath mats, blurs the distinction between art and consumer goods. He is also able to reach an audience that is not part of the traditional art world, and his popularity has grown tremendously over the years.
This has meant that KAWS has been able to expand his brand and develop an audience around the world. His success and recognition have allowed him to travel and exhibit in many countries, including Paris, London, Germany, Japan and the United States.
Unlike most contemporary artists, KAWS is able to attract an enormously loyal following. His fans are rabid and can often wait for days to get their hands on his latest creations.
He is also known for his sculptural works, which are created in wood, bronze and other materials. Depending on the theme, these sculptures can be as large as a few metres high.
The artist has a great deal of influence from other art movements, ranging from painters such as Claes Oldenburg and Gerhard Richter to sculptors such as Chuck Close. He has also influenced some of the biggest names in modern art such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring.
What is KAWS’s value?
KAWS is a highly-acclaimed artist with a reputation for producing high quality, collectible art. He has an extensive portfolio of paintings, sculptures, and a wide range of other works, from large-scale installations to smaller scale pieces. His prints are a key part of his oeuvre and can be very lucrative for investors.
Prints by KAWS are highly sought after by collectors, with edition sizes ranging from 20 to 250 and a wide variety of designs available. Complete sets of ten screenprints are also popular amongst collectors.
When buying a KAWS print it’s important to check that the edition size is correct. Generally, if the edition is too small then it’s unlikely to sell for much more than the original price.
The best KAWS prints are ones that are signed by the artist and in excellent condition. This is crucial to ensure the piece does not depreciate in value. Additionally, it’s always important to check that the work is accompanied by the relevant paperwork including gallery or auction receipts.
Throughout his career KAWS has produced a number of limited editions, many of which have become extremely valuable due to their popularity. He has also collaborated with a number of companies on commercial products, including a special-edition bottle of Hennessy VS Cognac and a set of light bulbs with the KAWS double-X motif.
These collaborations have helped KAWS connect his art with the mass culture around him, with the result that his paintings and sculptures can appeal to a wide audience, rather than simply art fans. His collaborative work with COMME des GARCONS, for example, paired his signature double-X design with the brand’s iconic perfume.
He has also designed a range of limited-edition toys, most notably the Bounty Hunter series. He’s teamed up with Medicom Toy to produce several different variations of the Companion character, as well as other pop-culture icons such as Star Wars’ Boba Fett and Disney’s Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket.
The relationship between art and commodity culture has been a long-standing theme for KAWS, influencing everything from his early street art to his more recent work for high-end brands. From re-imagining familiar cartoon characters to creating branded clothing and accessories, the Brooklyn-based artist is a master of subverting the boundaries between art and commerce.
