The News (Complete Portfolio), 2018

KAWS is a multi-faceted New York-based artist and designer, ranked as a highly influential figure in the contemporary urban art scene. Starting his career in the ‘90s as a freelance animator by day and a graffiti artist by night, he is regarded as one of the most successful cross-over artists of our generation. KAWS has achieved street and gallery accreditation with his distinctive and sophisticated graphics. He is widely recognized for the repeated use of a hybrid cast of well-known cartoons, mascots, and human characters, resulting in the creation of a unique and universal visual language. Collaborating with global brands, KAWS challenges our conception of ‘high’ and ‘low’ art. His paintings, although abstract at first sight, are a deconstruction of appropriated pop culture characters into layers of abstract shapes.

This set of 9 prints is a sublime example of this abstraction process, reconfiguring highly recognizable face parts of iconic cartoon characters into a new and enigmatic fantasy world. The print also features the artist’s emblematic X-ed out eye, dazzling colors and his characteristic attention to refined shapes and lines. The blend of his trademark with original pop culture animations is a hallmark of KAWS’s universe, arousing a broad appeal among collectors inside and outside the art world.