Is seeing the famous Kaws cause for speculation?

Citing KAWS in achieving an exceptional career in the contemporary art world, Hirschhorn director Melissa Chiu says, "He is probably one of the most resilient artists we know, as he is able to collaborate not only with other artists, but also with those working in the fashion and music world," and adds, "We look forward to collaborating with him in the future."

KAWS, 47, replied in his shortest acceptance letter: "It's an exciting idea, to work together, and I'm honored to receive this award.

The KAWS Award for his contribution to art and culture has sparked speculation that one of the artist's play-like Companion sculptures — figures with his signature X at the location of the eyes — may join the museum's collections. No specific collaboration was announced, but after the brief ceremony, KAWS stated that we were "discussing it."

Colombian international rega star J. Balvin, who presented the award to the artist, is a friend and collector who has noticed the similarities the duo shared in conquering their worlds. "The way music started, he started writing on the walls on the streets," says Balvin. "He has great respect for him. Because it takes a lot of vision and love for what you do.

KAWS, a native of New Jersey, will draw inspiration from world-renowned pop artist Keith Haring, who died in 1988 of AIDS and who similarly began his career on the streets of New York. In the case of KAWS, he began to "rework" high-end advertising across the city, adding his brand and breathing action and life into it through the sad face of his characters in the "Comrade" series, with a reference to the pop art influences of Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, Swedish-born sculptor Claes Oldenburg and American artist Tom Wieselman.

But KAWS, who chose the graffiti sign as a teenager because he liked the way capital letters lined up, was once frustrated that the formal and conventional art world didn't take his work seriously. He opened a business store in Japan in the mid-2000s, just like Haring's Pop Shops in the mid-eighties, providing vinyl figures, prints and T-shirts at prices that a growing number of his fans could afford.

At the same time, these store items began to trade quickly in secondary markets at largely inflated prices. In 2019, the KAWS album sold for a remarkable $14.8 million. Described as a "takeover of a level," this work is a parody of The Simpsons' album "The Yellow Album" – itself a parody of the Beatles' Lonely Hearts Club Band. The KAWS version recreates Simpsons' characters with their signature eyes X. You can suddenly argue, as the New York Times magazine said in an article last year, to claim that "Donnelly is the most beloved contemporary artist alive today."

The world of fine art is beginning to pay attention to KAWS albeit recently, with his first solo exhibition in the United States held at the Brooklyn Museum only last year; his work was exhibited in a gallery in 2000. Thomas Crowe wrote last year in the Artforum that his work is "devoid of adult supervision, and there is no answer and no justification.

Currently, KAWS is a popular artist and favorite in popular culture, having been commissioned to make album covers for artists from Kanye West to Travis Scott.

Earlier this year, KAWS's first London area show was conducted partly virtually through Fortnite and attracted a large audience of young people. Still, it was striking the long line of children attending the afternoon event in Hirschhorn largely queuing up for selfies with the Riga star, who with KAWS earlier added ideas to Yoko Ono's nearby Wish Tree in Washington, D.C.