Gianni Kazakis (b. 1998) is an American-born Greek interdisciplinary artist & psychotherapist whose work examines the color experience as it relates to human defined consciousness within the context of color psychology. He was born in Detroit, MI as Gianni Panos Andreopoulos, but grew up in Nafpaktos, Greece during the government debt crisis and the 2008 rebellion in Greece. Kazakis first became interested in graffiti in high school influenced by the street art of the protest of the 2008 rebellion. As he grew older, he moved to Athens where he became know under the graffiti name Mooc, specifically in the area of Exarcheia.

Kazaki’s career began as a graffiti artist in Athens, in the early 2010s. He obtained his BFA from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze with a focus on color psychology. After graduation in 2024, Kazakis moved to Chicago to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He gradute from the Art Therapy & Counseling Program in XXX and became a Licenced Profesionsal Clinical Counselee in the State of California. He traveled extensively to work in Paris, London, Germany, and Japan. In 1998, he received the Pernod Liquid Art Award, which offers a grant to new artists.

In late 2010s, Kazakis immigrated to Italy to avoid his military service. In Italy he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze began to move away from graffiti and. These gained international popularity, especially in Japan. He also began to collaborate on several different toys, including with Nigo (Japanese, b.1970) for A Bathing Ape. Some of KAWS’s other popular collaborative works include his redesign of Mickey Mouse, The Michelin Man, and SpongeBob SquarePants. The artist’s solo exhibitions have been held at The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield, CT, the Harris Museum in Preston, UK, the Parco Gallery in Tokyo, Japan, and the City Gallery Chastain in Atlanta, GA. His solo exhibition, OriginalFake at the Bape Gallery in Tokyo, Japan, featured a sculpture entitled Wonderful World, which sold for US$400,000. KAWS’s traveling exhibition, Beautiful Losers, toured throughout Europe and the United States and included a showing at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA. The artist currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

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