TLDR: KAWS blends cute, cartoon-like characters with isolation and despair, commenting on the commodification of consumer culture - A modern day trojan horse?

I walked into the KAWS: Family exhibition at San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art expecting to find cute characters and selfies. I walked out contemplating the subtext of despair on display. 

Me x KAWS at MoMA SF, 2025

 

Adorable x dark = unsettling? subversive? tragic?

We’ve all seen KAWS’ bubbly characters and iconic X'd out eyes, from street art to billboards to sneakers to Instagram, but have we really looked at them? As I walked through the exhibition, darker symbols of death, despair, and imprisonment quickly emerged. The artwork was a blend of cute Japanese Kawaii culture and existential dread, and while it was impossible to decipher which viewers favored which message, it worked.

The more successful it becomes, the more it embodies the very isolation that success can bring.

KAWS characters, Companion, BFF, and Chum, are undeniably cute, with their Mickey Mouse fashion: white gloves, oversized shoes, and bubbly shapes that make you want to lean in for an innocent cuddle. At the same time, these characters are often posed hunched or slouching over, behind literal or abstract bars, arms hanging loosely from their sides or covering their faces (such as Companion). You first notice the uplifting play and youthfulness in the vibrancy of colors, implied flawlessness with perfectly smooth curves and sculpture surfaces, and then you notice the depressive weights hiding in plain sight.

 

"New Morning", 2012

 

KAWS discusses this dichotomy directly, framing it as a form of relatable communication - "a skull is usually associated with death, so I tried to make it as friendly and approachable as possible... You can't really get more universal than that" (Smith, 2019). 

He’s intentionally engineering contradiction. Could the imprisonment metaphor represent us, the audience, as we find ourselves trapped in our consumer culture, commodified and packaged for easy consumption?

 

KAWS gift shop at MoMA SF, 2025

 

An expert in brand collaborations

Today, KAWS (pseudonym for American artist, Brian Donnelly) is considered a post-pop conceptual artist, but he started out in the NYC street art game in the 1990s. As observed by Max Blue in his 2025 article for Hyperallergic, “early on, Donnelly seems to have figured out that marketing is the key to success… Now, the KAWS project has come to be defined by its ubiquity, pervading the market from $20 t-shirts to $14-million paintings.”

When major museums give prime real estate to an artist who has been criticized as a 'sellout,' it's a profound signal about how the art world has changed in the last 100 years.

KAWS acknowledges this evolution, and is selective about which brands he chooses to work with. In an interview with Fast Company back in 2009, he said that he “only like[s] to work with companies that are part of [his] life already.” To date, this includes an impressive list of luxury fashion and streetwear brands, top musicians, and mass market consumer goods - Such as Dior, Nike, Supreme, Marc Jacobs, Uniqlo, Audemars Piguet, MTV, Kid Cudi, John Mayer, General Mills, and more.

 

KAWS x Nike collaboration, 2021

 

KAWS isn’t the only artist thriving through collaborations - Yoyaoi Kusama is another example, with her Louis Vuitton partnership in 2012 and again in 2023, as well as many other contemporary and ultra-contemporary artists in today’s art market. 

In a 2025 Significa article, Ana Fernandes discusses the two-way benefits of collaborations for both artists and brands, arguing that the positive impact of a successful collaboration can project well into the long-term. “Swatch’s long-running partnerships with contemporary artists,” for example, “turn everyday watches into artistic statements, blurring the lines between product and collectable” (Fernandes, 2025).

 

KAWS x General Mills collaboration, 2022

 

While KAWS is often criticized for being too commercial, his response is, “at first when I was younger, I thought, 'Oh man, this is something I have to think about.' I soon learnt that the only thing I need to do is exactly what I want to do and let the chips fall where they may” (Lux Magazine, 2023). In open rejection of “traditional hierarchies,” discussed in a 2019 Art in America article, KAWS makes it clear that he will continue to pursue collaborations in his work, despite naysayers. 

 

KAWS fan at MoMA SF, 2025

 

Armed with institutional acceptance

From the present exhibition at MoMA SF in addition to those hosted by other recognized museums around the world, it's evident that the institutional art world has embraced KAWS' work - including his extensive portfolio of collaborations and open rejection of tradition. 

The Brooklyn Museum, for example, has a giant KAWS wooden sculpture in their lobby, and his auction prices have hit impressive multi-million dollar figures. We’re not talking about fringe galleries - we’re talking about major museums giving KAWS coveted space, promotion, and resources. When institutions like these give prime real estate to an artist who has been criticized as a 'sellout,' it's a profound signal about how the art world has changed in the last 100 years.

 

"The News", 2017

 

Is KAWS’ work ultimately a modern-day trojan horse? It looks harmless enough - cartoonish characters and playful colors, but smuggled inside is persistent commentary on loneliness, alienation, and the commodification of emotion. The more successful it becomes, the more it embodies the very isolation that success can bring.

 

Me x KAWS at MoMA SF, 2025

 

References

My own personal experience visiting the KAWS: Family exhibition at MoMA SF in-person (December, 2025)

Blue, M. (2025, November 29). KAWS makes art for the tech-bro era. Hyperallergic. Retrieved from https://hyperallergic.com/kaws-makes-art-for-the-tech-bro-era-sfmoma/

Donnelly, B. (2023, February 13). An interview with KAWS. Lux Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.lux-mag.com/an-interview-with-kaws/

Fernandes, A. (2025, February 14). The power of brand collaborations: Why smart partnerships win. Significa. Retrieved from https://significa.co/blog/the-power-of-brand-collaborations

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. (2025). KAWS: Family. [Exhibition].

Smith, R. (2019, September 3). What the rise of KAWS says about the art world's ailments. Art in America. Retrieved from https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/kaws-democratized-art-peddles-relatable-motifs-exhaustion-death-63649/

Written by Taylor Black

Advisor, Founder, and Artist in Residence at Artist Growth Studio