KAWSKAWS Holiday Taipei (KAWS brown Taipei Companion) 2019
2019
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2019
- Dimensions:Height: 5.5 in (13.97 cm)Width: 7 in (17.78 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:NEW YORK, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU354311184252
KAWS
In the beginning, Brian Donnelly was just a kid from Jersey City, New Jersey, who got into the graffiti thing. KAWS was his tag, chosen simply because he liked the way it looked. Today, KAWS creates all kinds of art — there are KAWS figures and toys, sculptures and colorful drawings, paintings and prints that appropriate pop phenomena like the Smurfs, the Simpsons and SpongeBob SquarePants.
In the late 1990s, the artist, a 1996 graduate of New York’s School of Visual Arts, was making a living as an illustrator for the animation studio Jumbo Pictures. Like young Hansel and Gretel with their trail of crumbs, KAWS would mark the morning route to his downtown Manhattan office with “subvertising,” “interrupting” fashion advertisements by adding his colorful character Bendy, its sinuous length sliding playfully around the likes of a Calvin Klein perfume bottle or supermodel Christy Turlington.
These creations gained a following, to the point where work posted in the morning would disappear by lunchtime. Even in those early days, KAWS was hot on the resale market.
“When I was doing graffiti,” he once explained, “it meant nothing to me to make paintings if I wasn’t reaching people.”
Instead of seeking entrée to the elite New York art world (which, frankly, wasn’t looking for a street artist anyway), KAWS moved to Japan, where a flourishing youth culture welcomed visionaries like him.
In 1999, he partnered with Bounty Hunter, a Japanese toy and streetwear brand, to release his first toy. Companion — an eight-inch-tall vinyl reimagining of Mickey Mouse, with a skull-and-crossbones head and trademark XX eyes — debuted with a limited run of 500. It sold out quickly.
Companion was the first of more than 130 toy designs, which came to include such characters as Chum, Blitz, Be@rbrick, BFF and Milo, each immediately recognizable as KAWS figures by their XX eyes. Fans have proved insatiable. In 2017, MoMA’s online store announced the availability of a limited supply of KAWS Companion figures; as avid collectors logged on to stake their claim, the website crashed — multiple times.
Companion is the most visible of the KAWS posse, appearing over the past decade in new postures and combinations in monumental KAWS statues and other works. These include Along the Way (2013), an 18-foot-tall wooden sculpture of two Companions leaning on each other for support; Together (2016), two Companions in a friendly embrace, which debuted during an exhibition of KAWS’s work at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, in Texas; and KAWS:HOLIDAY (2018), a 92-foot-long inflatable Companion floating on its back in Seoul’s Seokchon Lake. The sculptures were re-created as toys, blurring the lines between art and commerce.
KAWS’s visual language may be drawn from cartoons, but his work doesn’t necessarily evoke childlike joy.
“My figures are not always reflecting the idealistic cartoon view that I grew up on,” he explains in the catalogue for the Fort Worth exhibition. “Companion is more real in dealing with contemporary human circumstances . . . . I think when I’m making work it also often mirrors what’s going on with me at that time.”
KAWS's résumé reads like a record of major 21st-century pop-culture moments. It includes his work with streetwear brands like A Bathing Ape and Supreme; his design for the cover of Kanye West’s 2008 album, 808s & Heartbreak; and his collaboration with designer Kim Jones on the Dior Homme Spring/Summer 2019 collection, Jones’s debut as the fashion brand’s creative director.
Learn how to spot a fake KAWS art toy, and browse authentic KAWS figures, prints, sculptures and mixed media works on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: New York, NY
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- KAWS Passing Through Companion 2018 (KAWS brown passing through companion)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS Passing Through Companion 2018. New and sealed in its original packaging. The most iconic of KAWS Companions, this Passing Through figure was published by KAWS One, and has since sold out. Medium: Vinyl Paint, Cast Resin. Year: 2018. Dimensions: 8 × 3.4 inches. New, unopened and in its original packaging. Stamped on the underside of foot from a sold edition of unknown. KAWS is an American graffiti artist and designer known for his toys, paintings, and prints. Born Brian Donnelly on November 4, 1974 in Jersey City, NJ, KAWS graduated with a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York and went on to work in animation. “When your whole art is based on the lettering you choose, you kinda figure out what ones work together. I just liked the shapes of the k, a, w, s,” he explained of his moniker. Having started as a graffiti artist in New York in the early 1990s, KAWS began reworking advertisements in his distinctive style. Pop Art and culture permeate his cartoonish Companion series of figurines, which bear a resemblance to the works of Takashi Murakami. KAWS worked together with Nike in 2017 to produce an Air Jordan 4...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS TAKE Companion (black KAWS Take)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS TAKE (Black) new & unopened in its original packaging. A standout KAWS figurative sculpture and variation of KAWS' large scale TAKE sculpture - a key h...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsVinyl, Resin
- Nina Chanel Abney Baby (Baby by Nina Chanel Abney)By Nina Chanel AbneyLocated in NEW YORK, NYNina Chanel Abney: Nina Chanel’s 'Baby' figure strikingly re-imagines Mickey Mouse as a man dressed in a bright red jumpsuit, with mirroring red circles stamped on the cheeks. Const...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS HOLIDAY Space & United Kingdom (set of 2 works)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS HOLIDAY SPACE (Silver) & KAWS HOLIDAY United Kingdom: set of two works (2020/2021): This set features two KAWS Holiday pieces: KAWS HOLIDAY SPACE is a celebration of 20 years o...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsVinyl, Resin, Polyurethane
- KAWS HOLIDAY Changbai: set of 2 works (KAWS chanbgai)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS Holiday Changbai Mountain: set of 2 works (Black & White Changbai): A beautifully composed KAWS COMPANION set published to commemorate KAWS'...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS Clean Slate Companion (KAWS brown clean slate)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS Clean Slate (Brown), new & unopened in its original packaging. A well-received work and variation of KAWS' large scale Clean Slate sculpture - a key ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- Marilyn Portrait (Red)By Russell YoungLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Russell Young Title: Marilyn Portrait (Red) Portfolio: Marilyn Portrait Medium: Hand-pulled acrylic and enamel silkscreen on paper Date: 2014 Edition: 25/25 Sheet Size: 27" x...Category
2010s Pop Art Portrait Prints
MaterialsEnamel
- Sólo en Sueños - Only in DreamsLocated in Rye, NYFrom the Artist: You are just a fantasy in my head. It is difficult to explain. Our love blossomed into an eternal dream and there we were lost. You look...Category
2010s Pop Art Portrait Prints
MaterialsPermanent Marker, Acrylic
- Lo Mejor Para Mí - The Best for MeLocated in Rye, NYFrom the Artist: I don't have much to tell you, because this story is short, the end is coming, but it will remain in the memory, in the heart, in the depths. Because that's the way ...Category
2010s Pop Art Portrait Prints
MaterialsAcrylic, Permanent Marker
- Hasta Ayer - Until YesterdayLocated in Rye, NYFrom the Artist: Yes, it is always this duality between who I am and who I want to be, the one that I have not been allowed to be or rather, the one that I do not allow myself to be....Category
2010s Pop Art Portrait Prints
MaterialsPermanent Marker, Acrylic
- Gané el Combate - I Won the CombatLocated in Rye, NYFrom the Artist: This is me, a load of contrasts, color and life. Pain and anxiety, but always strength. My engine is love, passion, and strong emotions. This internal flutter of fee...Category
2010s Pop Art Portrait Prints
MaterialsAcrylic, Permanent Marker
- Le Hago Caso al Corazón - I Pay Attention to the HeartLocated in Rye, NYFrom the Artist: I dreamed that you had not left, that you whisper your magic in my ear, that you are still singing in my heart those beautiful words that inspire me and fill my soul...Category
2010s Pop Art Portrait Prints
MaterialsPermanent Marker, Acrylic
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
How to Spot a Fake KAWS Figure
KAWS art toys have developed an avid audience in recent decades, and as in any robust collectible market, counterfeiters have followed the mania. Of course, you don’t have to worry about that on 1stDibs, where all our sellers are highly vetted.
KAWS Is Having a Major Effect on Popular Culture, Whether on the Street or in Museums
From graffiti tagger to hypebeast obsession to auction hero — we chart the artist’s rise and his widening influence.