KAWS American, b. 1974

Considered one of the most relevant artists of his generation, KAWS engages audiences beyond the museums and galleries in which he regularly exhibits. His prolific body of influential work straddles the worlds of art and design to include paintings, murals, large-scale sculptures, street art, and graphic and product design.

Over the last two decades KAWS has built a successful career with work that consistently shows his formal agility as an artist, as well as his underlying wit, irreverence, and affection for our times. He often draws inspiration and appropriates from pop culture animations to form a unique artistic vocabulary for his works across various mediums.

Now admired for his large scale sculptures and hardedge paintings that emphasize line and color, KAWS' cast of hybrid cartoon and human characters are perhaps the strongest examples of his exploration of humanity. His refined graphic language revitalizes figuration with big, bold gestures and keen, playful intricacy. As seen in his collaborations with global brands, KAWS' imagery possesses a sophisticated humor and reveals a thoughtful interplay with consumer products. Highly sought-after by collectors inside and outside of the art world, KAWS' artworks, with their broad appeal, establishes him as one of the most prominent artists in today's culture.

Solo exhibitions include KAWS: WHERE THE END STARTS, Modern Art Museum  of Fort Worth, Texas (2016) which traveled to the Yuz Museum, Shanghai (2017); KAWS, Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Longside Gallery, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom (2016).  His work has also been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Missouri (2017); Brooklyn Museum, New York (2015); Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Málaga, Spain (2014); Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas (2013); Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia (2013); and the High Art Museum, Atlanta, Georgia (2011).

His monumental sculptures have been shown in prestigious locations including the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, United Kingdom and the Brooklyn Museum, New York.