KAWS

Artist 230

KAWS

Pop Art

Brian Donnelly (born 1974), known professionally as Kaws (stylized as KAWS), is an American artist and designer. His work uses repeated use of a cast of figurative characters and motifs, some dating back to the beginning of his career in the 1990s, initially painted in 2D and later realised in 3D. Some of his characters are his own creations while others are reworked versions of existing icons

Kaws' sculptures range in size from a few inches to ten metres tall, and are made from various materials including fiberglass, aluminium, wood, bronze, and a steel pontoon inflatable raft.

His work is exhibited in galleries and museums, and has a number of books illustrating his work published. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, creating sculptures, acrylic paintings on canvas, and screen prints while also collaborating commercially, predominantly on limited edition toys, but also clothing, skate decks, and other products.

Kaws’ work can be characterized by an emphasis on color and line, distinctive graphics, such as the repeated use of “x”s on hands and nose and ears, and a re-appropriation of pop culture icons such as Mickey Mouse, the Michelin Man, the Smurfs, Snoopy, and SpongeBob SquarePants. His characters are generally depicted in a shy and/or powerless pose often times with their hands over their nose. In his paintings, Kaws always deconstructs his appropriation of iconic characters into shapes that produces abstract paintings.

Pop Art and culture permeate his cartoonish Companion series of figurines, which bear a resemblance to the works of Takashi Murakami. “When your whole art is based on the lettering you choose, you kinda figure out what ones work together. I just liked the shapes of the k, a, w, s,” he explained of his moniker.

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Sources Consulted: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaws http://www.artnet.com/artists/kaws/