13 Artists And Their Designed Art Toys (Part One)

In the 1990s, when the post-90s generation was still playing with children’s toys, collectible art toys began to appear in Hong Kong and Japan, and after 2000, they were introduced to the world by artists such as KAWS. In the past few years, many famous artists have started to sell their own designer art toys, and the growing trend of art toys has been increasing.

Art toys are never toys, but a kind of artwork. Many famous artists, designers, and graffiti masters around the world are joining the making of art toys. For art toys, the enthusiastic snappers may still be the same group of “kids” who love to play with children’s toys, but the artists have given the toys more individual expression.

Joan Cornellà

Spanish cartoonist Joan Cornellà has 2.982 million followers on Instagram, second only to Banksy and KAWS. The eerie smiles and bright tones of his comics are highly recognizable and popular even in countries of different cultures.

Joan Cornellà’s classic K-Love, based on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has been made into a toy, with each vinyl figure costing around HK$1,600 and available from DDT stores. This art toy’s index finger and thumb are folded in the shape of a love heart, and the artist hopes that the world will remain in love.

Joan Cornellà’s darkly humorous toys are back – vinyl figure FWEN, and the “I HOPE I DIE SOON” poster, from Joan Cornellà’s 2018 comic strip. Even with a sawed-off leg, the two best friends still cling to each other with a big smiles. The FWEN and the poster together satirize the hopelessness of real life.

Zeng Fanzhi

The long-awaited ArTy ReTro® X Zeng Fanzhi: “The Mask” art toy is now available for purchase. The figures are based on the characters from Zeng Fanzhi’s 2000 Untitled – The Mask series, and each one is hand-painted to the highest quality.

KAWS

As one of the top art toys, KAWS released a face-down COMPANION in 2020, in order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the iconic character COMPANION.

KAWS: HOLIDAY SPACE flying into space is KAWS launched a commemorative art toy, divided into gold, silver, and black three colors.

In support of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and to raise funds for it, KAWS has released three different colors of TAKE figures, with the black model being highly collectible.

Javier Calleja

Spanish artist Javier Calleja, whose popularity is growing because of his big-eyed toys, collaborated with K11 and released a limited edition of Little Maurizio in Christmas style, with the red one being Santa Claus and the green one being an elf. 500 sets were released.

Yoshitomo Nara

The 2020 exhibition was forced to cancel, for the fans of  Yoshitomo Nara, perhaps the new toy 123 Drumming Girls on sale at the end of the year can bring some comfort. This set of art toys is based on his “Three Sisters” created in 2007, three lively little girls playing drums. After being made into toys, the girls are still beautiful and attractive.

James Jean

James Jean pays homage to the Impressionist painting “Little Dancer of Fourteen Years” in 2020 with a “maze” toy, made of gold-plated stainless steel with wooden sticks.

David Shrigley

David Shrigley is best known for his fresh and humorous style of toys, and the inflatable swan is one of his famous art toys. His new work SERPENT is a white snake, compared with the real snake, it is harmless, and also very cute.

David Shrigley says, “In many cultures, the snake is a symbol of evil and lies, but this snake represents truth and positivity. Anyone who has this snake in their home will feel joy and find that their attitude toward life will become more positive.”

Conclusion
Art toys are for adults, and every art toy has an artist’s design concept, and that’s why fans buy it because we all agree with this truth. The power of words is limited, or we are not good at expressing it, so we design toys to express our understanding of the world, people, and the environment.
As a vinyl art toy maker in China that produce art toys based on the design drawings of overseas artists, we were fortunate to see many amazing art designs by artists and customize vinyl figures for them.