PARTNERS
Medium: Painted cast vinyl
Year: 2011
Dimensions: 19×16 cm (7-1/2 x 6-3/8 inches)
Edition: 500, unnumbered
Co-produced by Medicom Toy, Tokyo and OriginalFake, Tokyo
Molded signature, date and manufacturer’s mark to underside
‘© KAWS_11 Medicom Toy 2011 China’
With Partners, KAWS delivers one of his most quietly revealing works. At first glance, the sculpture appears disarmingly simple: two figures standing side by side. Yet beneath this apparent clarity lies a layered meditation on authorship, identity, and the uneasy relationship between creator and creation. Produced in 2011, Partners occupies a pivotal position in KAWS’s practice, where his characters begin to step into more explicitly narrative and psychological territory.
The sculpture presents a dual figure composition mounted on a low circular base. On one side stands a naturalistic representation of the artist himself: dressed casually, arm extended forward. On the other, a Companion figure adopts a withdrawn posture, head lowered and partially covered, as if shielding itself from view. The contrast is immediate and deliberate. The human figure is upright, composed, outward-facing; the Companion is introspective, almost vulnerable. The gesture of the extended arm, echoing a familiar cultural archetype, becomes ambiguous here. It can be read as guidance, presentation, or even control. Rendered in a uniform grey tone, the sculpture eliminates chromatic distraction, allowing the relationship between the two figures to dominate. Surface, gesture, and proportion carry the entire narrative weight.
Partners directly recalls one of the most recognizable sculptural images in popular culture: the statue of Walt Disney holding hands with Mickey Mouse at Disneyland. KAWS appropriates this visual language but subtly destabilizes it. Where the original celebrates harmony between creator and character, KAWS introduces tension. The Companion does not confidently stride forward; it recoils. The relationship is no longer celebratory, it is introspective, even uneasy.
In doing so, KAWS shifts the narrative from myth-making to self-reflection. The work becomes less about legacy and more about the psychological cost of creation. Produced in collaboration with Medicom Toy, Partners was released in 2011 as a vinyl and plastic sculpture in an edition of 500. Measuring roughly 8 inches, the work maintains the scale of a collectible object while adopting the compositional logic of a monument. The base reinforces this reading, elevating the figures into a staged, almost commemorative setting.
At its core, Partners is about duality. The artist and the avatar. The public figure and the private self. Control and dependence. The Companion, KAWS’s most successful creation, appears here not as a triumphant icon but as something fragile, even burdened. Its posture suggests withdrawal, perhaps fatigue, as if the weight of recognition has turned inward. Meanwhile, the artist figure remains composed, yet oddly detached, his gesture unresolved.
There is a subtle irony at play. The artist stands beside the very figure that brought him global recognition, yet the relationship feels asymmetrical. Who leads whom is no longer clear.
Despite its modest edition size, Partners has become one of the most conceptually important works in KAWS’s sculptural output. It marks a moment where narrative enters his practice with clarity and restraint, without relying on spectacle. The work also anticipates later large-scale public installations in which Companion figures are placed in emotionally charged positions, resting, holding, shielding, suggesting that KAWS’s universe is not merely graphic, but psychological.
Today, Partners is widely regarded as a key piece: not because it is loud, but because it is precise. It captures, with unusual economy, the central paradox of KAWS’s career—the artist standing beside his creation, never entirely separate from it, and never entirely in control.
Auction Results
LA Modern: 17 March 2026
Estimated: USD 800 – 1,200
USD 896
KAWS (Brian Donnelly, b.1974)
Partners, 2011
Painted cast vinyl
Molded signature, date and manufacturer’s mark to underside
‘© KAWS_11 Medicom Toy 2011 China’
This work is from the edition co-produced by Medicom Toy, Tokyo and OriginalFake, Tokyo
Sold with original packaging
Tate Ward Auctions: 30 October 2025
Estimated: GBP 600 – 800
GBP 750 / USD 1,005
KAWS (American 1974-)
‘Partners‘, 2011
Painted cast vinyl with a plastic base
From an edition of 500
Manufactured by Medicom Toy
LA Modern: 28 August 2024
Estimated: USD 1,000 – 2,000
USD 1,260
KAWS (Brian Donnelly, b.1974)
Partners, 2011
Painted cast vinyl, plastic base
Molded manufacturer’s mark to underside
‘©KAWS.. 11 Medicom Toy 2011 China’
This work is from the edition of 500
Produced by Medicom Toy, Tokyo
Sold with original packaging
Heritage Auctions: 5 April 2023
USD 750
KAWS (b. 1974)
Companion (Partners), 2011
Vinyl with plastic base
Edition of 500
Stamped to the underside of the base
Produced by Medicom Toy, Tokyo
SBI Art Auction: 30 October 2021
Estimated: JPY 80,000 – 120,000
JPY 230,000 / USD 2,020
AUCTION RECORD FOR PARTNERS
KAWS
KAWS PARTNERS, 2011
Vinyl, plastic, multiple with original case
Signed and dated