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Lot Essay
“When we first met KAWS, we understood his ability to tell those stories that you will always remember. KAWS x Campana created a common story of referring to memories of childhood, affection, and wellbeing. We are both storytellers.” – Humberto Campana
One of the most visible and brazen artists to emerge from the burgeoning street art scene of the 1980s and ‘90s, KAWS creates sharp, witty works that draws upon pre-existing imagery to comment on consumer culture and its relationship to the art world. The Brooklyn-based artist is most notable for appropriating popular animation characters, following the footsteps of artists such as Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Takashi Murakami. Driven to blur the boundaries between fine and commercial art, his penchant for collaborations in the worlds of fashion, design and toy production have made him a leading figure of 21st-century pop culture.
KAWS CHAIR BLACK is the brainchild of KAWS and the São Paulo design duo Humberto and Fernando Campana – also known as the Campana brothers. Inspired by the spirit of Brazilian street life, they are renowned for using unexpected combinations of everyday materials that appear ordinary to make extraordinary furniture. Though KAWS and the Campana brothers might have seemed unlikely partners at first, Humberto recognized early on their shared love of artistic adventure. The KAWS x Campana collaboration includes two armchairs and a sofa with seats and backs made from KAWS’s instantly recognizable character BFF in pink and black. The present work incorporates 75 to 120 of these black characters, all of which have been carefully stitched together in a seemingly random fashion. It is immediately identifiable as part of the iconic furniture series that the Campana brothers have been working on for over a decade, where ordinary stuffed animals are turned into plush seating.
The black-coloured BFF plush as seen in KAWS CHAIR BLACK was one of the most sought after KAWS products in recent memory. Each BFF character features two white eyeballs with KAWS’s signature logo “XX” through them, a dainty soft pink button nose and floppy arms and legs. The piece is supported by four slim wooden legs in black to match, each of which has been slightly angled and polished to a rounded end. The crowning glory, a “KAWS” autograph, adorns one foot of each character. It was first unveiled in 2016 at his major exhibition Where the End Starts at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas. Two years later, KAWS commissioned the BFF plush chair, and later with the Campanas decided to share the results with a larger audience. The first few limited-edition pieces unveiled by Friedman Benda at Design Miami sold out in days, and the original prototype featuring bright blue characters now resides in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
The Campana brothers are notable for reinventing everyday materials to achieve straightforward design solutions, and this series was sparked by an idea to combine sets of soft toys – beginning with generic zoo animals and later appropriating iconic characters such as Mickey Mouse – into a cluster of giant cushions to be sat on, like sculptural furniture pieces. The result was “a chair that connects with childhood memories,” Humberto says of the work, which – with its endless variations – has come to epitomize their oeuvre. “It brings a smile to the face.” (H. Campana, quoted at https://www.architecturaldigest. com/story/the-story-behind-the-campanabrothers-iconic-stuffedanimal- chair-design).
One of the most visible and brazen artists to emerge from the burgeoning street art scene of the 1980s and ‘90s, KAWS creates sharp, witty works that draws upon pre-existing imagery to comment on consumer culture and its relationship to the art world. The Brooklyn-based artist is most notable for appropriating popular animation characters, following the footsteps of artists such as Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Takashi Murakami. Driven to blur the boundaries between fine and commercial art, his penchant for collaborations in the worlds of fashion, design and toy production have made him a leading figure of 21st-century pop culture.
KAWS CHAIR BLACK is the brainchild of KAWS and the São Paulo design duo Humberto and Fernando Campana – also known as the Campana brothers. Inspired by the spirit of Brazilian street life, they are renowned for using unexpected combinations of everyday materials that appear ordinary to make extraordinary furniture. Though KAWS and the Campana brothers might have seemed unlikely partners at first, Humberto recognized early on their shared love of artistic adventure. The KAWS x Campana collaboration includes two armchairs and a sofa with seats and backs made from KAWS’s instantly recognizable character BFF in pink and black. The present work incorporates 75 to 120 of these black characters, all of which have been carefully stitched together in a seemingly random fashion. It is immediately identifiable as part of the iconic furniture series that the Campana brothers have been working on for over a decade, where ordinary stuffed animals are turned into plush seating.
The black-coloured BFF plush as seen in KAWS CHAIR BLACK was one of the most sought after KAWS products in recent memory. Each BFF character features two white eyeballs with KAWS’s signature logo “XX” through them, a dainty soft pink button nose and floppy arms and legs. The piece is supported by four slim wooden legs in black to match, each of which has been slightly angled and polished to a rounded end. The crowning glory, a “KAWS” autograph, adorns one foot of each character. It was first unveiled in 2016 at his major exhibition Where the End Starts at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas. Two years later, KAWS commissioned the BFF plush chair, and later with the Campanas decided to share the results with a larger audience. The first few limited-edition pieces unveiled by Friedman Benda at Design Miami sold out in days, and the original prototype featuring bright blue characters now resides in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
The Campana brothers are notable for reinventing everyday materials to achieve straightforward design solutions, and this series was sparked by an idea to combine sets of soft toys – beginning with generic zoo animals and later appropriating iconic characters such as Mickey Mouse – into a cluster of giant cushions to be sat on, like sculptural furniture pieces. The result was “a chair that connects with childhood memories,” Humberto says of the work, which – with its endless variations – has come to epitomize their oeuvre. “It brings a smile to the face.” (H. Campana, quoted at https://www.architecturaldigest. com/story/the-story-behind-the-campanabrothers-iconic-stuffedanimal- chair-design).