KAWS, The News VII, 2018

In The News VII, 2018, KAWS delivers one of the most dynamic and compositionally layered works from his celebrated The News series. Set within a circular frame, the piece bursts with saturated hues—acid yellow, electric blue, magenta, and crimson—woven together through the artist’s distinctive black outlines and recurring XX symbols. The overlapping planes and cartoon-derived contours evoke both movement and intimacy, suggesting the partial embrace of two abstracted figures.

Here, KAWS transforms visual noise into structured harmony. His use of vibrant, colliding colour fields captures the pulse of the contemporary world—its constant flux, saturation, and sensory overload. Yet beneath the graphic precision lies a human dimension: gestures that hint at connection, empathy, and emotional tension.

The News VII epitomizes KAWS’s mastery of translating pop culture motifs into high art abstraction. Playful yet deeply psychological, the work blurs boundaries between figuration and form, design and emotion—embodying the artist’s signature ability to communicate universal feeling through the language of colour and line.

.