KAWS Pink BFF (KAWS Pink BFF vinyl)
View Similar Items
KAWSKAWS Pink BFF (KAWS Pink BFF vinyl)2018
2018
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2018
- Dimensions:Height: 13 in (33.02 cm)Width: 5.7 in (14.48 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:NEW YORK, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU35435122611
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.
- KAWS Blush Companion 2016 (KAWS Flayed)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS Blush Flayed Companion 2016: New and sealed in its original packaging. Published by Medicom Japan in conjunction with the exhibition, KAWS: Where The E...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS Red Blush companions (complete set of 2 works KAWS Companion)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS Red Blush Companions: complete set of 2 works: New and sealed in their original packaging. Published by Medicom Japan in conjunction with the exhibition, KAWS: Where The End Sta...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS Companion 2016: complete set of 6By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS Companion Complete Set of 6, 2016. Each new and sealed in original packaging. Published by Medicom Japan in conjunction with the exhibition, KAWS: Where The End Starts at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. These figurines have since sold out. Set includes 3 colors: Black, Brown and Grey, each in two variations (KAWS full body and Kaws Dissected...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Prints and Multiples
MaterialsVinyl, Resin
- KAWS SMALL LIE Brown (brown KAWS Companion)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS SMALL LIE Brown: Among KAWS’s signature “Companions,” Small Lie has the most childlike resonance. Clothed in overall shorts, the Pinocchio-inspire...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS GONE complete set of 3 (KAWS gone companions)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS GONE: Complete set of 3 figures: new & unopened in their original packaging. A well-received work and variation of KAWS' large scale GONE sculpture - ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Vinyl
- KAWS CLEAN SLATE set of 2 works (KAWS clean slate black & grey)By KAWSLocated in NEW YORK, NYKAWS Clean Slate Set of 2 (Black & Grey), new & unopened in their original packaging. A well-received work and variation of KAWS' large scale Clean S...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsVinyl, Resin
- Minnie mellow pinkBy Anna KaraLocated in PARIS, FRAnna Kara is a designer who does everything with hands. She uses resin and marble powder for her creations, and we find on each skull more than 150 details. Born in Armenia in 1980, ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsMarble
- NAOR - 35cm Teddy CH Tribute, full blackLocated in PARIS, FRAbout the artist : Naor is a French artist from Lyon born in 1988. Completely anchored in his time, he has always traveled a lot around the world. If travels form youth, Naor was ins...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin
- Korean Contemporary Art by Han-Jin Choi - Island BoyLocated in Paris, IDFUrethane, resin and acrylic Choi Han-Jin is a Korean artist born in 1981 who lives & works Busan, South Korea. He explores the discourses on scientific development and social change...Category
2010s Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Acrylic Polymer
- Korean Contemporary Art by Han-Jin Choi - Country Boy in MetalLocated in Paris, IDFUrethane, resin and acrylic Choi Han-Jin is a Korean artist born in 1981 who lives & works Busan, South Korea. He explores the discourses on scientific development and social change...Category
2010s Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Acrylic Polymer
- Korean Contemporary Art by Han-Jin Choi - Country Boy in GreyLocated in Paris, IDFUrethane, resin and acrylic Choi Han-Jin is a Korean artist born in 1981 who lives & works Busan, South Korea. He explores the discourses on scientific development and social change...Category
2010s Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Acrylic Polymer
- Korean Contemporary Art by Han-Jin Choi - Island BoysLocated in Paris, IDFUrethane, resin and acrylic Choi Han-Jin is a Korean artist born in 1981 who lives & works Busan, South Korea. He explores the discourses on scientific development and social change...Category
2010s Pop Art Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Acrylic Polymer
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.