Kosuke Kawamura - BE@RBRICK

Kosuke Kawamura is a popular contemporary artist and graphic designer based in Tokyo, Japan. Although he is widely known for his collages, he has also collaborated with various fashion brands to create stylish apparel as well. As Medicom Toy continues to expand their BE@BRICK line of figures, the company eventually formed a collaboration with Kawamura to create a unique figure that encapsulates his style.

Kosuke Kawamura x BE@RBRICK Collaboration Background

The collaboration between Kawamura and Medicom Toy’s BE@RBRICK brand was first announced in February 2019 and, as of early 2021, has only resulted in the release of one unique design. That said, this design was made available in two of BE@RBRICK’s standardized sizes: 100% and 400%.

Collaboration Planning and Launch

The first official public announcement regarding this collaboration came on February 15th, 2019 through Medicom Toy’s official blog site and Sync, a special online store that is owned and managed by the company. After the original announcement of the collaboration, pre-orders for the BE@RBRICK figure that followed were made available.

BE@RBRICK Kosuke Kawamura 100% & 400% Set

This set contains two figures that are both based on the same design created by Kosuke Kawamura. The design itself only uses black and white for color but uses the stark contrast between the two to create a design that is intricately detailed, yet visually crisp and clear. The figure also makes great use of Kawamura’s collage style, which, in this particular case, appears to be based on a United States dollar bill that has been cut into thin strips. Although the design jumbles up these thin strips to make it much less recognizable, the unique icons, symbols, and phrases found throughout it make the inspiration for this figure clear. Aside from the unique design, these two figures are much like any other BE@RBRICK figure. Both the 100% and 400% figures have iconic BE@RBRICK features like a pair of bear-like ears, articulated arms and legs, and a big, round belly.

Product Name: BE@RBRICK Kosuke Kawamura 100% & 400% Set
Manufacturer: Medicom Toy
Specifications: Set of 2 painted, articulated, non-scale plastic figures
Height (Approx.): 100%: 70 mm; 400%: 280 mm

About Kosuke Kawamura

Kosuke Kawamura is a graphic designer and artist that was born in 1979 in Hiroshima Japan. Around the 2010s, Kawamura began practicing graphic design on his own and eventually became a freelancer in the graphic design industry. He would go on to be known for his collages, which took significant inspiration from an American collage artist named Winston Smith. These collages often follow Kawamura’s ideology of taking common, mass-produced things and changing them to create something new. In recent years, Kawamura’s work has caught the eyes of several brands in the fashion industry, including Shawn Yue’s MADNESS (MDNS), Uniqlo, NEIGHBORHOOD, and countless others.

About Kosuke Kawamura’s Collages

As previously mentioned, Kawamura was greatly influenced by Winston Smith’s work when he was first making collages. Smith is a surrealist who creates collages by taking mundane pictures from magazines and recontextualizing them, creating works that challenge the audience to confront the hypocrisies and paradoxes in modern society. That said, Kawamura’s work generally tries to stay away from adding politics into his art and opts to use popular culture for inspiration instead. Kawamura was particularly influenced by the culture of Tokyo, where he learned about other designers like Naohiro Ukawa through local magazines.

Other Important Kosuke Kawamura Artwork

Although Kawamura is known for his collages, he has also collaborated with popular clothing brands to create unique forms of wearable art as well. The following are a few examples of such collaborations.

MADNESS Collaboration

MADNESS is a fashion brand founded by actor Shawn Yue. Through this collaboration, several shirts based on Kawamura’s shredded collages were produced. The collaboration was first announced in June 2020 and included five unique shirt designs that came in both black and white. Like with several other collaborations, one shirt design is based on a US dollar, a fairly common theme used by Kawamura.

Uniqlo UT Capsule Collaboration

In January 2021, a collaboration between Uniqlo and Kawamura was announced. This particular collaboration resulted in six shirt designs that fuse art originally created by Andy Warhol with Kawamura’s unique collage style. A few notable Warhol works in this collaboration include “Flowers”, “Campbell’s Soup Can”, and the album cover art for “The Velvet Underground & Nico”.

Related Figures

Those looking to add to their BE@RBRICK collections will be glad to know that Medicom Toy has collaborated with many other artists as well. Some examples include Andy Warhol, Brian “Pushead” Schroeder, Fantasista Utamaro, KRINK, and more.