KAWS is a New York-based graffiti artist, illustrator, painter, sculptor, product designer, and toymaker. His cartoonish style including his best known characters with X-ed out eyes has its roots in his early career as a street artist, when he began replacing advertisements with his own, masterful acrylic paintings in the early 1990s. Since, KAWS has embraced the commercialist spirit of Claes Oldenburg and Takashi Murakami, designing everything from Kanye West album covers to Nike sneakers.

His work includes repeated use of a cast of figurative characters and motifs, some dating back to the beginning of his career in the 1990s, initially painted in 2D and later realised in 3D. Some of his most famous images are reimagined versions of pop characters like Mickey Mouse and the Michelin Man.

KAWS is a world-renowned artist who exhibits in museums and galleries internationally, who also has made a name out of him designing limited edition toys and clothing. His art stands somewhere between fine art and global commerce. KAWS moved beyond the sphere of the exclusive art market to occupy a more complex global market.