What is the KAWS character called?

What the KAWS character is called depends on which one you mean, as KAWS has created more than one. Companion is the most visible of the KAWS posse, appearing over the past decade in new postures and iterations in both monumental KAWS statues and small figures. The character is a reimagining of Mickey Mouse with a skull-and-crossbones head and trademark XX eyes. Other KAWS characters include Accomplice, Chum and Bendy. On 1stDibs, shop a collection of KAWS art.

What is a KAWS companion?

Kaws'%20Companion%20is%20a%20clown-like%20figure%20based%20on%20a%20Mickey%20Mouse%20with%20X-ed%20out%20eyes.

How can you tell if a KAWS Companion is real?

To tell if a KAWS Companion is real, assess its overall quality. All authentic KAWS figures will feel solid and dense. If it’s hollow, it’s likely not a KAWS. And be skeptical of any product marked “factory error.” KAWS spends a great deal of time perfecting every limited-edition design and would never release a less-than-flawless creation. Smudged, deformed or misaligned details are highly unlikely on an authentic KAWS; it’s more probable that “factory error” and “sample” are simply more appealing terms for “unauthorized copy.” Also, look for the product’s correct year of creation and © KAWS stamped on the bottom of the doll. Some models should have the series name or toy manufacturer on them as well. Knowing the characteristics of the particular figure you're purchasing can also help you determine if the toy is authentic. When in doubt, enlist the help of a knowledgeable expert, such as a certified appraiser or experienced art dealer. On 1stDibs, shop a selection of KAWS art.

Kaws Brown

Materials

Screen

Recent Sales

Leo et StephKidcup Kaws Colore, 2022

Unavailable

H 59 in W 39.3 in

Kidcup Kaws Colore

Located in Miami, FL

Unique piece - Original work Additional photos upon request

Category

2010s Contemporary More Art

Materials

Plexiglass, Digital

KAWSPinocchio, 2017

Unavailable

H 15.36 in W 7.49 in D 7.09 in

Pinocchio

By KAWS

Located in New York, NY

Kaws x Disney Wooden Pinocchio. Signed and numbered "KAWS 31/100", also stamped "© Disney" and "Medicom Toy 2017"

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Sculptures

Materials

Resin, Vinyl

KAWSKAWS Together Companion (KAWS Brown Together), 2018

Sold

H 10 in W 8 in

KAWS Together Companion (KAWS Brown Together)

By KAWS

Located in NEW YORK, NY

KAWS Together. Brown color-way new and unopened in its original packaging.

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Prints and Multiples

Materials

Resin, Vinyl

Sold

H 12 in W 6 in

KAWS SHARE & KAWS TAKE (set of 2 KAWS companions)

By KAWS

Located in NEW YORK, NY

KAWS SHARE (Grey) & KAWS TAKE (Pink): Set of 2 KAWS figurative sculptures, each new & unopened in original packaging. Medium: Painted Vinyl Cast Resin (applies to each). SHARE: 12...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Figurative Sculptures

Resin, Vinyl

KAWSKAWS HOLIDAY Hong Kong (announcement), 2019

$225

H 8 in W 9 in

KAWS HOLIDAY Hong Kong (announcement)

By KAWS

Located in NEW YORK, NY

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Prints and Multiples

Materials

Plastic, Lithograph

$1,295

H 5.5 in W 7 in

KAWS Holiday Taipei & KAWS Holiday Singapore (2 works)

By KAWS

Located in NEW YORK, NY

KAWS Black Holiday Taipei & KAWS Holiday Singapore: A curated set of 2 KAWS Holiday figures featuring KAWS Companion in two distinctive positions. Each piece was published by the art...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art More Art

Materials

Materials

Resin, Vinyl

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Kaws Brown For Sale on 1stDibs

Find the exact kaws brown you’re shopping for in the variety available on 1stDibs. There are many Pop Art, Contemporary and Abstract versions of these works for sale. On 1stDibs, the right kaws brown is waiting for you and the choices span a range of colors that includes gray, black, brown and beige. Artworks like these — often created in paint, synthetic resin paint and vinyl paint — can elevate any room of your home. A large kaws brown can prove too dominant for some spaces — a smaller kaws brown, measuring 3 high and 1.5 wide, may better suit your needs.

How Much is a Kaws Brown?

The price for an artwork of this kind can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — a kaws brown in our inventory may begin at $132 and can go as high as $23,000, while the average can fetch as much as $1,145.

KAWS for sale on 1stDibs

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.

Questions About KAWS

What is the KAWS character called?
1 Answer
1stDibs ExpertNovember 26, 2024
What the KAWS character is called depends on which one you mean, as KAWS has created more than one. Companion is the most visible of the KAWS posse, appearing over the past decade in new postures and iterations in both monumental KAWS statues and small figures. The character is a reimagining of Mickey Mouse with a skull-and-crossbones head and trademark XX eyes. Other KAWS characters include Accomplice, Chum and Bendy. On 1stDibs, shop a collection of KAWS art.
What is a KAWS companion?
1 Answer
Irena Orlov ArtMarch 1, 2021
Kaws' Companion is a clown-like figure based on a Mickey Mouse with X-ed out eyes.
How can you tell if a KAWS Companion is real?
1 Answer
1stDibs ExpertAugust 29, 2024
To tell if a KAWS Companion is real, assess its overall quality. All authentic KAWS figures will feel solid and dense. If it’s hollow, it’s likely not a KAWS. And be skeptical of any product marked “factory error.” KAWS spends a great deal of time perfecting every limited-edition design and would never release a less-than-flawless creation. Smudged, deformed or misaligned details are highly unlikely on an authentic KAWS; it’s more probable that “factory error” and “sample” are simply more appealing terms for “unauthorized copy.” Also, look for the product’s correct year of creation and © KAWS stamped on the bottom of the doll. Some models should have the series name or toy manufacturer on them as well. Knowing the characteristics of the particular figure you're purchasing can also help you determine if the toy is authentic. When in doubt, enlist the help of a knowledgeable expert, such as a certified appraiser or experienced art dealer. On 1stDibs, shop a selection of KAWS art.

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.