KAWS: Passing Through (Grey) - Original Vinyl Sculpture, Street art, Pop Art
View Similar Items
KAWSKAWS: Passing Through (Grey) - Original Vinyl Sculpture, Street art, Pop Art2018
2018
About the Item
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.
- MARK RYDEN - YUKI THE YOUNG YAK (WHITE) Limited Surrealism Lowbrow Art DesignBy Mark RydenLocated in Madrid, MadridMARK RYDEN - YUKI THE YOUNG YAK (WHITE) Date of creation: 2022 Medium: Plush and rubber Edition: 500 Size: 43.20 x 30.50 x 25.4 cm Condition: Brand new, sent inside its custom box Th...Category
2010s Surrealist Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsRubber
- Ryan Travis Christian - BIRDER, THE MAYOR & SHERM Vinyl Modern Black & WhiteBy Ryan Travis ChristianLocated in Madrid, MadridRyan Travis Christian - BIRDER, THE MAYOR & SHERM Date of creation: 2022 Medium: Vinyl and mixed media Edition: 300 Size: Birder: h190 x w130 x d215 mm, The Mayor: h260 x w110 x d110...Category
2010s Other Art Style Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsPlastic, Mixed Media
- YVES KLEIN L'OURS POMPON Limited sculpture includes COA IKB Contemporary DesignBy Yves KleinLocated in Madrid, MadridL'OURS POMPON - EDITION YVES KLEIN Date of creation: 2022 Medium: Artisanal resin and pigments Edition: 999 (few numbers available, assigned randomly) Size: Plexiglas bell size - 49 ...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Plexiglass, Pigment
- Mark Ryden - BABY BOS - BLUSH. Limited Ed. Vinyl Figure Surrealism Lowbrow PinkBy Mark RydenLocated in Madrid, MadridMark Ryden - BABY BOS - BLUSH Date of creation: 2022 Medium: Vinyl figure Edition: 500 Size: 15.25 cm height Condition: In mint conditions, brand new inside its original package Desc...Category
2010s Other Art Style Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsPlastic
- Daniel Arsham CRYSTAL RELIC 003 Asahi Pentax Camera Modern Sculpture ConceptualBy Daniel ArshamLocated in Madrid, MadridDaniel Arsham - CRYSTAL RELIC 003 Date of creation: 2021 Medium: Sculpture made of cast resin Edition number: 445/500 Size: 11.43 × 13.97 × 17.7 cm Condition: Brand new, in mint cond...Category
2010s Modern Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin
- Daniel Arsham - FUTURE RELIC 06 POLAROID CAMERA Limited Sculpture Modern DesignBy Daniel ArshamLocated in Madrid, MadridDaniel Arsham - FUTURE RELIC 06 - POLAROID CAMERA Date of creation: 2016 Medium: Plaster and crushed glass Edition number: 251/500 Size: 12.7 × 14.6 × 14 cm Condition: In mint condi...Category
2010s Modern Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsGlass, Plaster
- EveryThing (Flag) 2015By Doug AitkenLocated in Beverly Hills, CADoug Aitken EveryThing, 2015 Mirror, Fibreglass & resin 92.5 x 119.5 x 12.5 inches Edition of 4 plus 2 AP's Provenance: NB: Available on saleCategory
2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsMirror, Resin, Fiberglass
$280,000 Sale Price20% Off - The Practice 'Take 18'Located in Milano, MISculpture, ballerina by Folkert de JongCategory
2010s Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsAcrylic, Polyurethane
- "The Nose" White Modern Plaster Sculpture on a Lucite and Black MarbleLocated in Pasadena, CAThis whimsical sculpture features a white plaster nose on a black marble base sitting on a Lucite one. The overall impression is elegant, because of the ...Category
1990s Modern Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsMarble
- Korean Contemporary Art by Han-Jin Choi - Country BoyLocated in Paris, IDFStainless steel - unique artwork marked with stamp from the artist Sculpture sold with fiberglass pedestal Dimensions of pedestal: 80 x 90 x 50 cm Artwork located in Seoul, South K...Category
2010s Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsStainless Steel
- Contemporary Wall Sculpture Installation House Bed Insect Mantis ArchitectureBy Gary SczerbaniewiczLocated in Buffalo, NYThe Palace at 3am (2022) by Gary Sczerbaniewicz. Wood, laser cut & etched chipboard, latex, plaster, and cast plastic.Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsPlastic, Latex, Plaster, Wood
- Arion - Monumental Contemporary Resin Horse ScuptureBy MarikoLocated in Miami, FLMariko’s Arion is an unique monumental contemporary horse sculpture made of resin and reinforced with an inside metallic structure, finished with a bi-component urethane paint, extre...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Cubist Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Automotive Paint, Polyurethane
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.