Urge 9
Condition reports and provenance available upon request
About This Work
In *Urge 9*, KAWS refines his signature visual lexicon—bold contour lines, flattened fields of colour, and the instantly recognisable X-eyed physiognomy—into a composition that reads with both graphic immediacy and painterly control. The work’s crisp layering and calibrated contrasts heighten a sense of tension between intimacy and spectacle, inviting the viewer to oscillate between emotional narrative and formal abstraction. Rooted in the artist’s fluency across street culture, design, and contemporary painting, *Urge 9* exemplifies KAWS’s ability to translate mass-media iconography into a nuanced meditation on desire, vulnerability, and repetition. Its visual impact is direct yet sustained: a deceptively simple image that rewards prolonged looking, underscoring the artist’s role in reshaping how pop imagery functions within the contemporary canon.
About the Artist
KAWS (American, b.1974) is a notable limited-edition toy and clothing designer. He was born in Jersey City, NJ, as Brian Donnelly. Growing up in New Jersey, KAWS first became interested in graffiti in elementary school, where he spent a good deal of time copying graffiti images onto paper. His firs...
View Full Artist Profile →Zebra One Gallery
Contemporary Art • Hampstead, London
Established 1976 • 50 years of excellence in contemporary art • Professional authentication and provenance research