Holiday Space (Silver)
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KAWSHoliday Space (Silver)2020
2020
About the Item
- Creator:KAWS (American)
- Creation Year:2020
- Dimensions:Height: 11.42 in (29 cm)Width: 5.12 in (13 cm)Depth: 4.53 in (11.5 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Bristol, GB
- Reference Number:Seller: LC-A1614e1stDibs: LU153127920342
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.
- Pinocchio & Jiminy CricketBy KAWSLocated in Bristol, GBPainted cast vinyl Edition of 500 (reported) 26 x 13.5 x 12 / 5.7 x 3 x 2.5 cm (10.2 x 5.3 x 4.7 / 2.2 x 1.2 x 1.1 in) Not signed or numbered Excellent, very minor scratch to Pinocch...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsPlastic, Vinyl
- What Party - Chum (Yellow)By KAWSLocated in Bristol, GBPainted Cast Vinyl Open edition Stamped by the artist's estate New, as issued. Some minor imperfections may exist given the nature of the material Sold in the original packagingCategory
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsPlastic, Vinyl
- What Party - Chum (Black)By KAWSLocated in Bristol, GBPainted Cast Vinyl Open edition Stamped on the underside of the feet New, as issued, with slight manufacturing fault (front of left foot, 0.5cm) Some minor imperfections may exist gi...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsVinyl, Plastic
- Holiday Japan 8" Mount Fuji Plush - Blue & Pink (Set of Two)By KAWSLocated in Bristol, GBPolyester Fur (100% Polyester) Open edition Unsigned, numbered on swing tag New, as issued. Some minor imperfections may exist given the nature of the material Sold in the original p...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsPolyester
- Companion Flayed (Mono)By KAWSLocated in Bristol, GBPainted Cast Vinyl Open edition Stamped on the underside of feet Excellent, minor production issue with height. Some minor imperfections may exist due to the nature of the material...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsPlastic, Vinyl
- BFF Plush Doll (Black)By KAWSLocated in Bristol, GBPolyester Edition of 3,000 Numbered on attached swing tag New, as issued, slight abrasion on base of box, this does not effect the figure. Some minor imperfections may exist to the ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsPolyester
- Dana Bloom, Measurement, Currently presented at the Tel Aviv BiennaleLocated in Tel Aviv, ILDana Bloom's Measurement features a gilded human figure that challenges the viewers' perception of presence and absence, while exuding a dreamlike, timeless...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsFoil, Gold Leaf
- FetchLocated in Montreal, QuebecIn his recent works sculptor Nicholas Crombach uses the markers of tradition to critique social rituals. Through the employment of the mythology and the rich visual culture of the hunt, Crombach assembles works which revel in contradiction. He has created a series of unexpected juxtapositions that examine the cultural significance and the complex issues percolating around hunting and sporting traditions in the 21st century. For this exhibition, Crombach riffs off the myth of Diana and Actaeon, which provides a poignant framework for his theme. In the original story, Actaeon, the hunter and grandson of King Cadmus, is in the forest with his dogs, when he spies Artemis (Diana) in her bath attended by her nymphs. Diana was the goddess of the hunt, but when the mortal Actaeon sees her, her nymphs try to cover her modesty. She splashes him with water, turning him from a mortal man into a stag, who flees into the forest only to be hunted down and killed by his own dogs. The hunter becomes the hunted. Crombach’s Fetch (2018) refers to the mythology of Diana and Actaeon as he transforms the lofty and classical story of metamorphoses into a game of fetch in the local park, constructed on a grand scale. In Fetch (2018), Crombach creates a hybrid between the art historical imagery from paintings of hounds hunting stags with the flashy colours and synthetic materials of modern day dog chew toys. The sculpture is displayed alongside a variety of chew toys that act as an index for the sculptures interpretation, some transformed into porcelain that has been marked with the aristocratic hunting motifs found on antique English pottery. Here, the assembly of works create a conversation on the blurred boundaries between: histories of domestication, the working relationships we have with animals, contemporary issues of hunting as “play”, tradition and survival. A second major new sculpture “End of the Chase” is a collapsed version of a Victorian period rocking horse housed in London’s V&A Museum Of Childhood. The sculpture responds to the 2014 hunting act that passed in Britain which in turn attempts to obliterate the tradition of hunting with hounds, most commonly associated with the fox hunt...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsAcrylic, Polyurethane, Nylon, Resin
$28,000 - MarriageBy Andrés AmayaLocated in Cuernavaca, MorelosReinforced polymer (FV) and acrylic polyurethane. Edition 2 of 9Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsPolyester, Acrylic Polymer, Polyurethane
- BudgiesLocated in Montreal, QuebecNicholas Crombach has a BFA from OCAD University with a major in Sculpture and Installation. In 2016-17 he participated in a year-long studio residency at The Florence Trust in Londo...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Paint, Polyurethane
- SparrowsLocated in Montreal, QuebecNicholas Crombach has a BFA from OCAD University with a major in Sculpture and Installation. In 2016-17 he participated in a year-long studio residency at The Florence Trust in Londo...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Paint, Polyurethane
- Nature MorteLocated in Montreal, QuebecNicholas Crombach has a BFA from OCAD University with a major in Sculpture and Installation. In 2016-17 he participated in a year-long studio residency at The Florence Trust in Londo...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Paint, Polyurethane
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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.