KAWS, Urge IV (Red), 2020

In Urge IV (Red) (2020), KAWS continues his exploration of emotional intensity and visual tension through his signature Companion motif. Against a rich crimson backdrop, four vibrantly colored hands — rendered in yellow, red, olive green, and teal blue — press gently yet insistently upon the figure’s torso. Each glove bears the trademark X insignia, instantly recalling KAWS’s familiar visual lexicon of affection, anonymity, and introspection.

The Urge series is among KAWS’s most psychologically charged bodies of work, using repetition and variation in color to evoke shifting moods and states of being. Here, the dominant red tone conjures feelings of urgency, warmth, and emotional weight, while the contrasting colors of the gloves introduce rhythm and tension within the frame. The figure beneath seems caught between comfort and constraint, a recurring metaphor for the balance between self-control and vulnerability in the modern world.

Executed with meticulous linework and crosshatched shading reminiscent of comic illustration, Urge IV (Red) bridges the immediacy of pop culture with the introspection of contemporary art. The tactile layering of color and gesture transforms a cartoon-like image into a meditation on touch, emotion, and human connection.

Through this fusion of color psychology and pop formalism, KAWS invites viewers to reflect on the quiet conflicts beneath surface aesthetics — where playful imagery gives way to deeper emotional resonance, and the universal urge for connection meets the complexities of contemporary existence.