Ups And Downs 8

Ups And Downs 8 is a signed screen print in colours on Saunders Waterford High White paper made by the renowned American artist and designer, KAWS. The print shows a green hand that seems to belong to a cartoon character who is standing outside of the composition. Other facial features that can be detected in the composition include a large red tongue, a blue eye and a green tooth. The arrangement of the features seems illogical which brings a surrealist feel to the print.

The print can be seen alongside nine other silkscreen prints that compose the Ups And Downs collection. The body of prints was made by KAWS in 2013 to celebrate the opening of his exhibition of the same name at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas. The use of the portrait style format harks back to KAWS’ early artistic ventures when he would hijack adverts in metro stations, bus shelters and phone booths and spray paint over the adverts he found there.

KAWS’ artistic style was deeply influenced by graffiti, street art and animation and the artist is often compared to Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, two leading 20th century artists who emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. KAWS’ affinity with the screen printing technique has also led to comparisons between his work and the father of the Pop Art movement, Andy Warhol.