KAWS – Gone

KAWS's Gone (2019) is a signed limited edition screenprint published on the occasion of KAWS: Companionship in the Age of Loneliness, the artist's major exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. The artwork depicts one of KAWS's most emotionally charged motifs: the Companion figure carrying a lifeless counterpart, rendered here in a subdued, monochromatic palette that emphasizes vulnerability, care, and loss.

The composition distills themes that recur throughout KAWS's work, particularly intimacy, isolation, and shared emotional burden in contemporary life. By stripping the figure of color and spectacle, Gone departs from the artist's more graphic paintings and sculptures, instead adopting a quieter, elegiac tone. The simplified line work and restrained surface reinforce the sense of gravity and tenderness embedded in the scene.

Published in 2019 in a limited edition of 500 screenprints, Gone is accompanied by a comprehensive exhibition catalogue. Both the screenprint and the accompanying book are hand-signed and numbered by the artist.

KAWS (born 1974), the artistic pseudonym of Brian Donnelly, is one of the most influential figures in contemporary art, widely recognized for bridging street culture, fine art, and global popular imagery. Emerging from the New York graffiti scene of the 1990s, KAWS first gained attention through subversive interventions on advertising billboards and bus shelters known as "subvertisements," where he altered familiar commercial images with his now-iconic visual motifs.

Central to KAWS's practice are his instantly recognizable characters, most notably the Companion, defined by cartoon-like forms, exaggerated proportions, and X-shaped eyes. These figures evoke familiarity while maintaining emotional distance, functioning as stand-ins for themes of isolation, melancholy, and shared cultural memory. Over time, they have become enduring symbols within contemporary visual culture.

KAWS's paintings, sculptures, and limited edition prints draw heavily on appropriation, reworking imagery from cartoons, advertising, and art history. By recontextualizing figures such as Mickey Mouse, the Simpsons, and Snoopy, he engages with nostalgia while simultaneously questioning authorship, consumption, and mass media. His bold color palettes, graphic compositions, and flattened forms position his work at the intersection of Pop Art, street art, and postmodern critique.

Beyond two-dimensional artworks, KAWS is equally celebrated for his sculptural practice. His sculptures range from collectible vinyl editions to monumental public installations in cities worldwide. These large-scale artworks translate his characters into physical space, encouraging direct public interaction and dissolving traditional barriers between art institutions and everyday life.

Through his expansive body of work across painting, sculpture, screenprints, lithographs, and editions, KAWS has reshaped how contemporary art engages with popular culture, commerce, and emotional experience. His artworks occupy a distinctive position within the global art market, reflecting a practice that is both widely accessible and conceptually rigorous.