KAWSKAWS Companion (Black Flayed)2016
2016
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2016
- Dimensions:Height: 11 in (27.94 cm)Width: 5 in (12.7 cm)Depth: 3 in (7.62 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Englishtown, NJ
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1624213467552
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.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Englishtown, NJ
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- FUTURA Bearbrick (400% & 100%)By FuturaLocated in Englishtown, NJEach Futura Bearbrick has unique marble patterns. Comes packaged with 2 sculptures (400% and 100%). Futura signature is stamped on the back of the larger 400% sculpture. Presented in...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Sculptures
MaterialsPlastic, Color
- KAWS Companion (Brown)By KAWSLocated in Englishtown, NJRealeased as part of Kaws exhibition in 2016. Solid Brown edition. Original sealed package as issued. Never opened. Painted cast vinyl. Open Edition 2016. Stamped with Kaws signature...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Sculptures
MaterialsPlastic, Color
- KAWS Holiday Hong Kong Limited Edition 20" PlushBy KAWSLocated in Englishtown, NJLimited edition plush in black. Made for the Holiday Hong Kong 2019 collection. Kaws signature stitched on bottom of foot. Packaged in Kaws Holiday drawstring bag. 20 inches tall. ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary More Art
MaterialsPolyester
- KAWS Snoopy (Black Large)By KAWSLocated in Englishtown, NJSuper soft Kaws X Peanuts collaboration Plush. NYC inspired edition in the all black design. Re-imagined by Kaws complete with the recognizable Kaws X eyes. Made and released by Uniq...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary More Art
MaterialsPolyester
- KAWS Mount Fuji (Pink)By KAWSLocated in Englishtown, NJLimited Edition release from 2019. Released for the Kaws outdoor exhibition at Mount Fuji in Japan. Soft plush of Mt. Fuji in ultra soft pink. Packaged in custom printed, pink box wi...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary More Art
MaterialsPolyester
- KAWS BFF Plush (Black)By KAWSLocated in Englishtown, NJSuper soft Kaws BFF Plush. Limited edition of 3000. Kaws signature stich stamped on bottom of foot. Comes in custom black and pink presentation box. Attached tag is numbered from edi...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary More Art
MaterialsPolyester
- Circus Seals, Polystyrene, Metal, Acrylic Paint, Wall SculptureLocated in Jerusalem, ILCircus Seals , 2022 Polystyrene, wood, aluminum and industrial paints 35 x 45 x 5 cm 14 x 18 x 2 in As an Industrial designer, I was trained to perform the creative act of determi...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsMetal
- Circus Elephant, Polystyrene, Metal, Acrylic Paint, Wall SculptureLocated in Jerusalem, ILCircus Elephant , 2022 Polystyrene, wood, aluminum and industrial paints 40 x 35 x 5 cm 16 x 14 x 2 in As an Industrial designer, I was trained to perform the creative act of dete...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsMetal
- Round, soft-green, ceramic "Roly Poly" by Bethany KrullBy Bethany KrullLocated in Buffalo, NYThis soft, green, ceramic sculptural depiction of a Roly Poly insect by New York artist Bethany Krull is both playful and sophisticated. The piece is hand-built, without the use of ...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsCeramic, Rubber, Paint
- FLAMEBy Lyle LondonLocated in Tempe, AZThis abstraction of the ethereal beauty of open flame is painted with a special automotive paint that shifts color from magenta to jade green or both depending on point of view and a...Category
2010s Contemporary Abstract Sculptures
MaterialsFiberglass, Other Medium
- Sans titreLocated in STRASBOURG, FRSon propos tire sa source d’oppositions entre visible et invisible, entre absence et présence, minutie et douceur, tout en observant les changements légers marqués par le temps : l...Category
2010s Contemporary Abstract Sculptures
MaterialsCanvas, Thread, Plastic, Papier Mâché
- Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder (Bench)Located in Lausanne, CHFiberglass with Raf Simons fabric for Kvadrat. Designed specifically for Foreign Agent.Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary More Art
MaterialsFiberglass
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.