ZHONG CHENG

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Exposition：This work is accompanied by its original box

“It’s amusing to think that when I work on a large-format piece in bronze or wood it’s termed sculpture but if I do the same piece in plastic on a small scale it’s called a toy.” – KAWS
World renowned, Brooklyn-based artist KAWS graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York where he obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration in 1996. He began his career as a graffiti artist, and later entered the consumer culture with Pop Art style collaborating with various brands and designers. In the past twenty years, through the modification of commonplace ads and the reinterpretation of commercially popular cartoon characters, KAWS has created his own world forging a complicated path between Pop Art, graffiti and abstraction. His art stands between fine art and global commerce, he moved beyond the sphere of the exclusive art market to occupy a more complex global market. Unlike any artists seen before, KAWS now have the attention of the world.
The artist’s potential and talent made him the trend setter of his generation. His discussion-provoking art takes elements from popular culture, children’s cartoon, and art history. His most iconic character “Companion” can be translated into traditional abstract form. Among the many successful collaborations in various fields, KAWS also had the opportunity to design and produce his own limited edition vinyl toys. The demand for these highly-collectable, pop culture motifs toys have skyrocket and made their way into the contemporary art market; making art accessible to all and adding a new energy to the art world.
His first large-scale retrospective exhibition “KAWS: WHERE THE END STARTS” took place in 2017 at the YUZ Museum in Shanghai, the solo show examines the artist’s multidisciplinary career over the past twenty years. Followed by “KAWS: HOLIDAY” in 2018 with long time collaborator AllRightsReserved, showing a monumental inflatable Companion as the largest sculptural endeavor by the artist to date and his first artwork to float on water, the world tour started in Seoul, Korea moving on to Taipei, Taiwan and ending in Hong Kong, China.
Final Days is a bronze sculpture inspired by KAWS grand museum exhibition titled “FINAL DAYS” in 2015 at CAC Málaga, the show featured five large sculptures in wood of KAWS most celebrated Companion. However, the artist only chose to re-create in bronze a smaller model of one particular standing and open hand Companion, the work was given the same name as the exhibition. Final Days was exclusively released at Hong Kong Art Basel in 2018, with a very rare limited edition of 25 pieces, each numbered and signed. The rarity in medium and edition easily makes the work a highly sought after collectable.