Urge Portfolio

KAWS (b. 1974) is one of the most prominent contemporary artists whose prolific body of work straddles the worlds of art and design through street art, product design, paintings, murals, graphics and monumental sculpture. KAWS’ work always subtly alludes to the world’s current situation and the emotional and psychological complexities of our time. “Urge” is a set of 10 screenprints portraying his signature CHUM character swarmed by XX-marked hands in various colors. This portfolio is based on KAW’s “Urge” paintings - set of 10 canvases displayed at the Brooklyn Museum’s KAWS 2021 survey exhibition. Of this series KAWS said: “In March 2020, my wife and I had Covid-19. I was in bed for three weeks. There was all this uncertainty and news about not touching your face, not touching anything. I started doing drawings of CHUM with hands all over his face — touching and contaminating. It’s meant to be humorous but at the same time, it’s very stressful. As soon as I got out [of isolation], I turned the drawings into a series of 10 paintings, which is hung as a grid in the exhibition.” (L. Freeman, “A Private Viewing of the New KAWS Exhibition with the Artist Himself,” Vogue, February 16, 2021). These characters are in situations we can empathize with in our complex cultural and political environments. The artist’s work resides in museum collections worldwide, and he currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.