KAWS: FAMILY

KAWS: FAMILY explores the playful and poignant artistic universe created by KAWS. Marking KAWS’s first major museum exhibition on the West Coast, KAWS: FAMILY traces the artist’s output over the past three decades through its keen ability to connect to shared emotions and culture. From paintings, drawings, and sculptures to advertising interventions, product collaborations, and limited-edition collectible toys, visitors will encounter the many creative expressions of KAWS’s distinctive language using recurring characters and pop culture appropriations.

At the heart of the exhibition is FAMILY (2021), a larger-than-life bronze sculpture that portrays KAWS’s beloved characters COMPANION, BFF, and CHUM grouped as an intimate family unit. Through their gestures of closeness and vulnerability, visitors can see themselves reflected in these figures, creating a shared sense of kinship and empathy. Borrowing from popular animated characters and cultural icons, KAWS’s characters recontextualize familiar imagery, creating a dialogue around cultural memory and contemporary life.