Kaws, Brian Donnelly. KAWS is a New York-based artist who has made a name out of him designing limited edition toys and clothing. He is also a world-renowned artist who exhibits in museums and galleries internationally. 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. Brian Donnelly was born in 1974 in Jersey City, New Jersey. He graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York where he obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration. After graduating from college in 1996, Brian Donnelly worked for Disney as a freelance animator. At Disney, Brian Donnelly had the opportunity to paint backgrounds and contributed in films such as 101 Dalmatians, Daria, and Doug. KAWS currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. By the early 1990s he moved to New York City and began to work focus on subverting the images on bus shelters, phone booth advertisements, and billboards. KAWS museum exhibitions include solo shows at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, High Museum of Art, Modern Art Museum, and the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. Other international galleries include Galerie Perrotin and Honor Fraser Gallery. His work has been seen in Paris, London, Berlin, and Tokyo.
About the edition
This 100% superfine cashmere blanket by KAWS is exclusive to House of Voltaire.
Produced by master Scottish craftspeople, the double–sided jacquard technique achieves a design–rich finish. The front face of the blanket showcases KAWS' artwork, with a muted birdseye pattern on the underside. The blanket has a noticeably soft handle and luxurious heavyweight feel.
KAWS' body of work straddles the worlds of art, fashion and design to include paintings, murals, large-scale sculptures, street and public art, and fashion, graphic and product design. His work is infused with humour, humanity and affection for our times. Admired for his larger–than-life sculptures and colour–filled paintings, KAWS’ cast of hybrid cartoon and human characters are drawn from pop culture animations and form a distinctive artistic vocabulary.
The blanket features a pair of gloved cartoon-like hands disappearing into an unidentified pool of liquid, undercutting the slapstick qualities of the image with darker possibilities