KAWS (B. 1974)

Brian Donnelly, better known by his artist name KAWS, is the rising enfant terrible of the New York contemporary art scene. Before KAWS became the talk of the town, he embarked his artistic career as a street graffiti artist while residing in his hometown Jersey City. His graffiti illustrations on the trains, bridges, bus stops, phone booths and billboards around New York quickly gained fame. After receiving his BFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York, KAWS was hired as a freelance animator for Disney. Towards the end of the 1990s, he visited Japan, where he was influenced to start his own brand of clothing and toy figurines. Starting with his first creation titled ‘Companion’, his limited edition vinyl toys became a global sensation.

As shown in the lot Small Lie, KAWS was inspired by well-known, iconic cartoon characters to integrate recognizable features such as Pinocchio’s elongated nose and Mickey Mouse’s protruding ears, white gloves, dungarees and boots. The figurine’s slouching shoulders, bowing head and inward facing legs resemble the pose of a child in guilt from telling a “small lie”. In addition to his toy sculptures, KAWS’s tweaked appropriations of popular cartoon imagery such as Spongebob Squarepants and the Simpsons are also highly sought-after as their familiarity appeals to a wide age range of fans.