KAWS is an American graffiti artist and designer known for his toys and paintings. Pop Art and culture permeate his cartoonish figures—such as his Disney-esque Companion—which bears a resemblance to the work of Takashi Murakami. “Graffiti is like building a career,” the artist reflected. “And there is a dialogue with the other artists out there mostly fellow writers because a lot of people who don’t paint just see a blur when they look at it.”

Born Brian Donnelly on November 4, 1974 in Jersey City, NJ, KAWS worked in animation after graduating with a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York. Having started as a graffiti artist in New York in the early 1990s, KAWS began reworking advertisements in his distinctive style. Gaining both street accreditation and more recently gallery exhibitions, his work can be found in the collections at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and the Rosenblum Collection in Paris. In 2017, KAWS worked together with Nike to produce an Air Jordan 4 shoe and Uniqlo to produce a Peanuts inspired T-shirt, continuing to blur the boundaries between fine and commercial art. The artist currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.