BFF Plush (Edition of 3000)
View Similar Items
KAWSBFF Plush (Edition of 3000)2016
2016
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2016
- Dimensions:Height: 18 in (45.72 cm)Width: 6 in (15.24 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:London, GB
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU160829718712
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’s oeuvre encompasses art toys, sculptures and colorful 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 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 prints, sculptures and mixed media works on 1stDibs.
- Virgil Abloh, "Receipt" Rug, 2019Located in London, GBVirgil Abloh, "Receipt" Rug, 2019 Wool, Nylon. Unopened and sold in original packaging. 78.74 x 35.43 in (200.0 x 90.0 cm) Notes: Abloh said “I wanted an ironic take on the traditi...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Street Art More Art
MaterialsWool, Nylon
- Virgil Abloh, "Receipt" Rug, 2019Located in London, GBVirgil Abloh, "Receipt" Rug, 2019 Wool, Nylon. Unopened and sold in original packaging. 78.74 x 35.43 in (200.0 x 90.0 cm) Notes: Abloh said “I wanted an ironic take on the traditi...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Street Art More Art
MaterialsWool, Nylon
- Virgil Abloh, "Receipt" Rug, 2019Located in London, GBVirgil Abloh, "Receipt" Rug, 2019 Wool, Nylon. Unopened and sold in original packaging. 78.74 x 35.43 in (200.0 x 90.0 cm) Notes: Abloh said “I wanted an ironic take on the traditi...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Street Art More Art
MaterialsWool, Nylon
- Blanket (Red)By KAWSLocated in London, GB100% superfine cashmere 50.98 x 70.98 in (129.5 x 180.3 cm) Edition of 80. Sold in 'as new' / unused condition and in original packaging (as issued). Sold unframed.Category
2010s Street Art Mixed Media
MaterialsWool
$11,448 - Wake Up Earth, Letterpress Print on Cream Cotton Paper, 2020 by Shepard FaireyBy Shepard FaireyLocated in London, GBWake Up Earth, Letterpress Print on Cream Cotton Paper, 2020 Letterpress on cream cotton paper with hand-deckled edges. Limited edition of 500. This work is in excellent condition. ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Street Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsCotton, Paper
- Wake Up Earth, Letterpress Print on Cream Cotton Paper, 2020 by Shepard FaireyBy Shepard FaireyLocated in London, GBWake Up Earth, Letterpress Print on Cream Cotton Paper, 2020 Letterpress on cream cotton paper with hand-deckled edges. Limited edition of 500. This work is in excellent condition. ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Street Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsCotton, Paper
- Banksy - Welcome Mat - Urban Graffiti Street ArtBy BanksyLocated in Asheville, NCBanksy - Welcome Mat - Urban Graffiti Street Art This mat is hand stitched using the fabric from life vests abandoned on the beaches of the Mediterranean....Category
2010s Street Art Mixed Media
MaterialsFabric, Textile, Jute, Plastic, Rubber
- Graffiti Street Art Mixed Medium on Canvas 45W x 60H" Sort of thoughtBy Irena OrlovLocated in Sherman Oaks, CAGraffiti Street Art on Canvas, Mixed Medium on Canvas 45W x 60H" Original Mixed Media Graffiti Street Art on Canvas Investment Opportunity - Unique - Original - Signed This is an o...Category
2010s Street Art Mixed Media
MaterialsCanvas, Varnish, Archival Ink, Acrylic, Digital, Mixed Media
- Original Red Graffiti Street Art on Canvas Mixed Medium, The Puzzle 45X60"By Irena OrlovLocated in Sherman Oaks, CAOriginal Graffiti Street Art on Canvas, Mixed Medium on Canvas 45W x 60H" Original Mixed Media Graffiti Street Art on Canvas Investment Opportunity - Unique - Original - Signed Thi...Category
2010s Street Art Mixed Media
MaterialsAcrylic, Digital, Canvas, Varnish, Archival Ink
- Pink Graffiti Street Art Mixed Media on Canvas, An improvisational Style 45X60"By Irena OrlovLocated in Sherman Oaks, CAOriginal Graffiti Street Art on Canvas, Mixed Medium on Canvas Original Mixed Media Graffiti Street Art on Canvas Investment Opportunity - Unique - Original - Signed This is an ori...Category
2010s Street Art Mixed Media
MaterialsCanvas, Varnish, Archival Ink, Acrylic, Digital
- Original Graffiti Street Art on Canvas Mixed Medium 45x60" The World as it isBy Irena OrlovLocated in Sherman Oaks, CAOriginal Graffiti Street Art on Canvas, Mixed Medium on Canvas 45W x 60H" Original Mixed Media Graffiti Street Art on Canvas Investment Opportunity - Unique - Original - Signed Thi...Category
2010s Street Art Mixed Media
MaterialsDigital, Canvas, Varnish, Archival Ink, Acrylic
- Original Red Green Street Art on Canvas Mixed Medium Art, Contradict, 45X60"By Irena OrlovLocated in Sherman Oaks, CAOriginal Graffiti Street Art on Canvas, Mixed Medium on Canvas 45W x 60H" Original Mixed Media Graffiti Street Art on Canvas Investment Opportunity - Unique - Original - Signed Thi...Category
2010s Street Art Mixed Media
MaterialsCanvas, Varnish, Archival Ink, Acrylic, Digital
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.