KAWS, Rare Carved Wood Kaws Hand Sculpture More Gallery Switzerland Wooden Toy Art, 2016

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Wood hand 2016 walnut 7 h × 4¼ w × 4 d in (18 × 11 × 10 cm) Engraved … Read more Wood hand 2016 walnut 7 h × 4¼ w × 4 d in (18 × 11 × 10 cm) Engraved signature and inscription to underside Kaws: Giswil 12 June-26 August More Gallery This work is from an edition of published by More Gallery, Switzerland. The KAWS show “GISWIL” opened at More Gallery as part of Art Basel, in Switzerland. It featured giant wooden companion sculptures. I do not know the edition size. Provenance: this comes from the fabricator who helped produce and finish them for KAWS. Brian Donnelly (born November 4, 1974), known professionally as Kaws (stylized as KAWS). KAWS is an American graffiti artist and designer known for his toys, paintings, and prints. His work includes repeated use of a cast of figurative characters and motifs. Some of his characters are his own creations while others are reworked versions of existing icons. Kaws's sculptures range in size from a few inches to ten meters tall,[1] and are made from various materials including fiberglass, aluminum, wood, bronze, and a steel pontoon inflatable raft. Pop Art and culture permeate his cartoonish Companion series of figurines, which bear a resemblance to the works of Takashi Murakami. Kaws's influences come from traditional high art painters like Gerhard Richter, Claes Oldenburg, and Chuck Close, and he has been compared to the likes of Andy Warhol for his cross-market appeal and ability to blur lines between commercial and fine art. His work is exhibited in galleries and museums, held in the permanent collections of public institutions, and avidly collected by individuals including music producer Swizz Beatz, internet figure PewDiePie, rappers Pharrell Williams, Kid Cudi, and members of South Korean group BTS. A number of books illustrating his work have been published. Kaws 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, Nike sneakers, skateboard decks, and other products. KAWS is represented by Skarstedt Gallery, New York. Moving to New York City in the 1990s, Kaws pursued illegal graffiti. Animator by day, and graffiti artist by night, Kaws started subvertising billboards, bus shelters, and phone booths, using a skeleton key gifted to him by friend and fellow graffiti artist Barry McGee. Using a key he created for himself, he also started subvertising bus shelters. Kaws has since subvertised in Paris, London, Berlin, and Tokyo. Kaws's Companion is a grayscale clown-like figure based on Mickey Mouse with his face obscured by both hands, and two bones sticking out of his head. In 1999, the Japanese toy company Bounty Hunter produced and sold a vinyl Companion toy (Mickey Mouse with X-ed out eyes). Kaws has periodically shown both paintings and products at Colette in Paris since 1999. His work was included in the traveling exhibition Beautiful Losers, which started at the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center and traveled throughout the US and Europe, including his then-largest museum show to date at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA in 2012. Since 2018 Espacio SOLO, Colección SOLO museum in Madrid, shows in its main hall Companion (Resting place) as part of its permanent exhibitions. Kaws's style can be characterized by an emphasis on color and line, distinctive graphics, such as the repeated use of "x"'s on the hands, nose, eyes, ears, and the appropriation of pop culture icons such as Mickey Mouse, the Michelin Man, and his characters are generally depicted in a shy or powerless pose often with their hands over their nose. In his paintings, Kaws always deconstructs his appropriation of iconic characters into shapes that produces abstract paintings. Since his first vinyl toy with the Japanese clothing brand Bounty Hunter in 1999, he has collaborated on toys with other Japanese companies: Nigo for A Bathing Ape (Bape), Medicom Toy, and Santastic!. Since the beginning of their partnership in 2001, Nigo and Kaws have collaborated on the packaging for Kaws's "The Kimpsons" exhibit and three seasons of A Bathing Ape. He and Medicom Toy ran OriginalFake, a brand and store in Aoyama, from 2006 to May 2013. Kaws has also collaborated with Jun Takahashi for the brand Undercover, as a voice-over artist for Michael "Mic" Neumann's Kung Faux, and worked on projects with Burton, Vans, Supreme and DC Shoes. There are Kaws-designed small edition bottles for Dos Equis and Hennessy, rugs for Gallery 1950 and packaging for Kiehl's cosmetics. In 2004, he collaborated with Undefeated Brand on a billboard project in Los Angeles. In 2008 he collaborated with John Mayer to produce a collection of guitar picks. In 2008, he created cover art for musicians Towa Tei, Cherie, Clipse (Clipse Till The Casket Drops) and Kanye West (808s & Heartbreak) as well as designed Nike Air Force 1 trainers (the Nike 1World project involved 18 total designers). And in March 2017, the Nike subsidiary Air Jordan released a capsule collection in collaboration with Kaws – four Air Jordan sneakers customized by Kaws, and a number of apparel pieces. He has also recently contributed a lot to the Hip Hop community with merch lines associated with artists such as Travis Scott with his April 2021 single "The Scotts" featuring Kid Cudi who has also has been working closely with Brian in recent merchandise releases. With Merch ranging from KAWS collaborated artwork specially created with hand crafted clothing to vinyl and cassette covers. i-D and Travis Scott collaborated merch. In November/December 2010 he illustrated magazine covers for The New Yorker, Clark Magazine , i-D and Sneeze Magazine. In 2011, Kaws appeared on the Bravo reality competition series Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, where he was a guest judge for the Season 2 finale. For the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, Kaws redesigned the MTV Moonman trophy in the form of his "Companion" character, and his 3D model was used to create a 60-foot tall inflatable version. He also redesigned various event materials. In 2014, Kaws designed the bottle artwork for the scent Girl, by Comme des Garçons and Pharrell Williams. In May 2017, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City released limited supplies of the $200 Kaws Companion action figure, resulting in the MoMA Design Store website crashing due to the unprecedented rush of traffic. In May 2018, Kaws installed two 26-foot tall Companion and BFF sculptures at a shopping complex in Changsha, China. In the 1990s, Donnelly and other artists contributed to a graffiti fanzine called Skills, further promoting his name and image in fields of fine art, fashion, and design. His collaborations with big known brands from Dior to Supreme, to even consumer good companies like Hennessey are what have only reinforced his work, catching the eye of collectors, for which many are influencers and other creators/artists. See less