KAWS

Companion figures and graphic editions from one of the most followed contemporary practices.

KAWS is the working name of Brian Donnelly, born in 1974 in Jersey City, New Jersey. He earned a BFA in illustration from the School of Visual Arts in New York in 1996 and worked for a time as a freelance animator at Jumbo Pictures, painting backgrounds for animated series including 101 Dalmatians, Doug and Daria.

In the 1990s he became known for altering advertising posters at bus shelters and phone booths in New York, painting his skull-and-crossbones character into the existing images. In 1999 he released his first Companion vinyl toy with the Japanese label Bounty Hunter, in an edition of 500 in each of three colourways.

The Companion and related characters such as Chum and his reworkings of cartoon figures recur across his paintings, sculpture and limited-edition screenprints, which are typically issued as numbered editions and portfolios.