INFINITE COLLAB
The king of collaboration, street artist KAWS keeps finding new outlets like Nigo, Pharrell, Air Jordan, Uniqlo and MoMA.
NEW YORK, NY
Brian Donnelly is better known as KAWS, a street artist who floats between fine art and global commerce, which means his work is welcomed at museums, galleries, fashion houses, as well as collaborations with musicians, and brands. He’s praised for knowing how to authentically move outside stodgy fine art market without becoming soft and overly pop.
After moving from Jersey City to New York in the 1990s, he began doing graffiti, subverting the images on bus shelters, phone booth advertisements, and billboards. After graduating from the School of Visual Arts in 1996, Brian worked for Disney as a freelance animator painting backgrounds for projects such as 101 Dalmatians, Daria, and Doug. These disparate experiences with graffiti and commercial art would be reconciled in the 2000s.
KAWS would become known for his creative ability to combine pop culture imagery on branded products, all while retaining his particular art style. The list of collaborations is astounding: He created custom Air Jordans, Kanye’s album art for “Heartbreak”, a fragrance for Pharrell, a leather purse for Nancy Gonzales, a virtual reality experience for M&Ms, custom award sculptures for MTV’s Video Music Awards, bottle labels for Hennessey, and the collaborations keep coming without KAWS ever compromising on his unique style.
“I wanted to make sculpture, but I never really thought about making a toy.”
At the same time, KAWS has had major solo exhibitions at art museums around the world, like MoMA in New York and Yuz Museum in Shanghai. KAWS has mastered scale as well, producing his weird creatures as custom plushes and toy figurines for museum gift shops, all the way to two-story tall sculptures holding court in public plazas. In 2012 he created a massive float for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
KAWS’ personal stylizations are always recognizable even when appropriating characters from The Simpsons, Mickey Mouse, the Michelin Man, the Smurfs, or SpongeBob SquarePants.
Brian Donnelly went from a skater kid doing graffiti in New York to creating across the globe by being flexible with his collaborations. Artists can take a lesson from his playbook: when you have a very tight focus you can free-wheel with other artists and brands without feeling like you’re selling out.
COLLABORATION VID
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DISCUSSION
One of KAWS first forays into the fashion world was exhibiting his work at Colette, a fashion boutique in Paris in 1997. “I would do different opportunities to get to different cities to do street art.” (6:50). Little did he know that he would not only be collaborating with fashion brands on shirts, shows, purses and more, but he would also begin releasing his own apparel.
Q: What other industries could you begin collaborating with? What are all the things it could become?
KAWS is brilliant at collaborating with sponsors because he understands which brands and other artists want access to his audience. KAWS has developed a particular style, yet he’s incredibly flexible about bringing other brands and artists into that style without feeling like he’s selling out.
Q: What possible sponsors want access to your audience? What would a sponsor pay for exactly?