At the same time, he also began a career as a graffiti artist and in the 90's moved to New York City to enjoy the vastness of a new playground. From that moment on, he began to focus on painting subversive images and placing them on bus shelters, telephone booths and billboards of all kinds. He starts to gain a huge notoriety and these hijacked ads become unavoidable.
Towards the end of the 90's, KAWS enjoys his new popularity and new opportunities are offered to him. Being a jack-of-all-trades and a real enthusiast, he then tackled streetwear. He designed toys and clothes for the biggest brands: Original Fake, A Bathing Ape, Undercover, Kung Faux, Nike, Vans or Comme des Garçons. At the beginning of the 2000s, he continued his detour and reworked many TV shows and cartoon characters such as the Simpsons, the Smurfs, SpongeBob SquarePants or even the Michelin Man.
KAWS then turned to acrylic paintings and sculptures. His most famous sculpture is the one of his character with the apparent skull called "Companion". One can clearly see that he used Mickey Mouse as a basic figure and decorated the face with bones. He also designed and produced limited edition figurines. These toys have become real collector's items/decorations all over the world and especially in Japan, a country that is a great lover of toys, and which has leading figures in this art such as Takashi Murakami).
We also find this famous "companion" in the illustration of the album Deluxe 808s & Heartbreak of Kanye West because yes KAWS also works with rappers. This diversity in his work and his unique style have allowed him to exhibit in the most beautiful galleries in the world. The whole of his works currently makes him one of the most talented contemporary artists of his time.