"The Pig" Art Toy

Michael Lau designed this "Pig" figure as part of his ongoing collaboration with Nike, running one of the sportswear brand's most identifiable graphic elements — the Swoosh — across the flank of a piggy-bank-form character. The cream-colored pig stands on four sculpted legs with a large red Nike Swoosh printed down its side, a cardboard money slot fixed at the mouth, and hand-detailed eyes and tail work throughout. Lau built his practice around the collision of streetwear iconography and collectible sculpture, and "The Pig" reads as both a critique of and a monument to the brand's cultural saturation — a piggy bank marked with the logo that arguably shaped consumer identity for a generation.

Michael Lau Kin-man (b. 1970, Hong Kong) is internationally recognized as the "Godfather of Designer Toys" and the founder of the urban vinyl style within the art-toy movement. After graduating from Hong Kong's First Institute of Art and Design in 1992, Lau merged action-figure sculpture with street culture, launching the "Gardener" series in 1999. His work has been exhibited from Tokyo and Taipei to London, Paris and Christie's Hong Kong/Shanghai, and he has collaborated with Nike, Casio, Puma, Carhartt and Maharishi, cementing his influence on hip-hop, skate and toy culture worldwide.