The KAWS HOLIDAY series is a globe-spanning sequence of monumental inflatable and physical COMPANION and BFF sculptures by Brian Donnelly (b. 1974), staged in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and the United States from 2018 onward. Each HOLIDAY installation is tied to a single city, a single moment, and a limited run of collectible figures released alongside the public event.
For collectors, HOLIDAY is the most consequential body of work KAWS has produced since his subway interventions of the late 1990s. It is the project that moved KAWS from designer-toy icon into museum-scale public art, while simultaneously creating one of the most appreciation-heavy figure series in the secondary market.
What HOLIDAY Is — And Why It Matters
KAWS HOLIDAY launched in March 2018 when a 121-foot reclining COMPANION floated in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong, anchored between Tsim Sha Tsui and Central. It was the first time a contemporary collectible artist had commanded harbor-scale public space in Asia, and it reset the ceiling for what a "designer toy" artist could be.
Every HOLIDAY stop since has followed the same template: a monumental public sculpture, a city-specific cultural moment, and a tightly edition-limited release of physical figures (typically 10–11 inches, sometimes plush, sometimes vinyl, sometimes both) sold through the AllRightsReserved (DDT Store) drop system. The figures are not souvenirs — they are the only durable artifact of an event that exists for days or weeks.
The HOLIDAY Stops (2018–2023)
| Year | Location | Form | Figure Release |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Hong Kong (Victoria Harbour) | Floating COMPANION, 121 ft | Vinyl + plush, grey/black/pink |
| 2018 | Taipei, Taiwan (Chiang Kai-shek Memorial) | Reclining COMPANION, 121 ft | Vinyl + plush, brown/black |
| 2018 | Seoul, Korea (Seokchon Lake) | Floating COMPANION | Vinyl + plush, full set |
| 2019 | Mt. Fuji, Japan | Reclining COMPANION at base of Fuji | Plush, multi-colorway |
| 2020 | Singapore (Marina Bay) | Floating COMPANION on water | Vinyl + plush set |
| 2021 | Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK | Bronze + inflatable | Bronze edition, vinyl |
| 2021 | Changbai Mountain, China | Snow installation | Plush set |
| 2022 | Space (HOLIDAY SPACE) | HOLIDAY figure sent to stratosphere | Vinyl + plush, silver |
| 2023 | Bangkok, Thailand | Reclining COMPANION | Vinyl + plush |
Why HOLIDAY Commands Premiums
HOLIDAY figures consistently outperform standard KAWS Open Edition releases on the secondary market — and the gap is widening. Three structural forces drive the premium:
1. Event-Anchored Provenance
Unlike Open Editions that exist in isolation, every HOLIDAY figure is permanently tied to a specific cultural moment. A HOLIDAY Hong Kong grey is not just a figure — it is the only portable artifact of the 2018 Victoria Harbour installation. That provenance is irreproducible. Once the inflatable deflates and the event closes, the figure is the only thing left.
2. Geographically Scarce Distribution
HOLIDAY figures release through AllRightsReserved's DDT Store with country-restricted shipping and onsite-only allocations during the public event. The Singapore HOLIDAY set, for example, was substantially allocated to in-person buyers in Marina Bay. That distribution friction creates real scarcity, not the manufactured scarcity of pure online drops.
3. Museum-Scale Cultural Validation
HOLIDAY is what convinced auction houses to take KAWS seriously at the highest level. The $14.7M Sotheby's Hong Kong 2019 record for The KAWS Album sits on a foundation that HOLIDAY built: KAWS as a credible public-art figure, not just a toy artist. That validation lifts every HOLIDAY figure in the secondary market.
Which Colorways Are Most Valuable
Across the HOLIDAY catalog, certain colorways have separated decisively from the field. Based on Gauntlet Gallery's review of 160,000+ comparable sales across street art and contemporary collectibles, the highest-appreciation HOLIDAY figures share three traits: first-city status, restrained colorway, and complete original packaging.
Top-Tier HOLIDAY Colorways
- HOLIDAY Hong Kong (Grey) — 2018: The original. First HOLIDAY release, smallest effective production run after returns and damages. Premium colorway for the entire series.
- HOLIDAY Japan / Mt. Fuji (Pink) — 2019: Plush-only, capped allocation, tied to one of the most photographed HOLIDAY installations.
- HOLIDAY Singapore (Black) — 2020: Pandemic-era release with disrupted distribution; functionally rarer than headline edition size suggests.
- HOLIDAY SPACE (Silver) — 2022: The only HOLIDAY tied to an extraterrestrial event. Conceptual scarcity is permanent.
- HOLIDAY UK / Yorkshire Sculpture Park Bronze — 2021: The only bronze HOLIDAY edition. Bridges figure collecting and fine-art sculpture collecting.
Limited-edition KAWS HOLIDAY figures have demonstrated 5–20x retail appreciation potential within five years of release, and select first-city colorways have crossed that range on shorter timelines.
Authentication: NFC Chip + OneCOA
Counterfeit HOLIDAY figures appear in the secondary market within 72 hours of every drop. The packaging is forged. The figures are forged. The signed receipts are forged. Authentication is the entire investment thesis on a KAWS HOLIDAY piece.
Gauntlet Gallery authenticates every KAWS figure — HOLIDAY and otherwise — to a single, repeatable chain: NFC chip embedded in the certificate + OneCOA blockchain record. The NFC chip pairs to a unique blockchain entry on a permissioned ledger; the OneCOA record contains photographs, provenance, and a permanent verification URL. Both can be read by any modern smartphone. Neither can be cloned.
This is the authentication standard we apply across our KAWS catalog. For the full collector framework — including what to look for on box flaps, foot stamps, and AllRightsReserved holograms — see our KAWS collector guide.
HOLIDAY in Context: The Evolution to Museum-Scale Art
HOLIDAY is the bridge between two KAWS careers. Before HOLIDAY, KAWS was the world's most successful designer-toy artist with serious gallery credibility. After HOLIDAY, KAWS is a public-art figure operating at the scale of Anish Kapoor and Jeff Koons, with a collectibles market that funds and amplifies the public work.
The HOLIDAY series accomplished what no prior designer-toy project had: it gave a figure-based artist legitimate scale, repeatable global presence, and a body of physical objects that institutional collectors take seriously. That is why HOLIDAY figures will continue to compound — they are the proof of concept for an art-market category KAWS effectively invented.
Building a HOLIDAY Collection
For collectors entering the HOLIDAY market today, three rules apply:
- First-city colorways first. Hong Kong 2018 anchors the entire series. Every later HOLIDAY references it.
- Complete sets over loose figures. Original box, inner tray, and ARR documentation typically command a 30–50% premium over loose figures in identical condition.
- Authentication before payment. Never close on a HOLIDAY figure without NFC + OneCOA verification. The cost of authentication is a rounding error against the cost of a forged figure.
Gauntlet Gallery has been authenticating and trading KAWS since the gallery was founded in 2012. Our HOLIDAY catalog is curated to first-city, complete-packaging, NFC-verified pieces — the segment of the market with the deepest appreciation history.
Browse our authenticated KAWS catalog and current HOLIDAY inventory: gauntlet.gallery/collections/all