FriendsWithYou (FWY) is a fine art collective based in Miami, Florida, founded by Samuel Albert Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III in 2002, that creates artworks in varying mediums. The duo is driven by a mission to reinterpret religious acts and rituals into acts of play, giving power to each person that interacts with their work. The goal is to provide a spiritual outlet free from the dogma of religion to allow people to recognize each other and to ultimately connect all people. They began by creating soft sculpture which was after labeled designer toys, particularly plush and wood toys, as well as art installations, playgrounds, published works, performance art, animation and multimedia projects.[1] Their tag line is magic, luck, and friendship; We are FriendsWithYou.
Friends With You toys are given personas described in booklet-style tags included with the dolls. The toys are produced in small numbers, and are usually not re-released. FWY has participated in Art Basel in Miami and Pictoplasma in Berlin. FWY has also done advertising work for brands like Nike, MTV, Red Bull, Volkswagen, and Coca-Cola.[1]
In October 2006, the German art press Die Gestalten Verlag published a Friends With You monograph titled Friends With You Have Powers!
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In 2002 Friends With You released their first line of toys, eight plush toys known as "Friends", including the character of Malfi.[2] The Good Wood Gang, the second line of toys by Friends With You, was released in 2005.[3] These wooden toys consists of several pieces that can be put together similar to Lego. Wish Come True is a line of roly-poly toys sold in blind boxes.[2] A second plush line features different types of the Malfi character.[2] The Burger Bunch toys had the ability to have their parts moved around or shared similar to changing out the stacked ingredients in a hamburger sandwich.[2] At the same time The Boy toy was released. The Boy was also a featured in the installation and performance of Cloud City at MOCA.
Get Lucky was an installation located in the Miami based art space The Box. It featured six different altars, with a focus on pyramid, conical, or triangular shapes, covering different aspects of human life and death. The Fur Liaison was a furry monster character who accompanied guests around the installation.[2]
Skywalkers Parade was commissioned by Scion and was a collaboration with other artists such as Ara Peterson, Misaki Kawai, MumbleBoy, Paper Rad, David Choe, and DEVILROBOTS.[4][5] It consisted of a number of balloons sizing from 5' to 60' and premiered on December 7, 2006 during Art Basel Miami.[4][6]
Cloud City opened in 2005 at the MOCA warehouse during the annual Art Basel in Miami. It was set up as an interactive playground composed of geometric shapes such inflatable spheres, padded 10 foot cones on casters, and pillowed cylinders.[7] Several of the objects replicated the facial design of The Boy.[8] With the start of Cloud City Friends With You also released a CD music album of the same name featuring music artists such as PonPoko, Phoenicia, Otto VaN Shirach the Magnifient, and Sam.[2]
Rainbow Valley is a playground designed by Friends With You located at the Aventura Mall in Miami. It opened on December 21, 2006 and was their first permanent installation. The playground has rainbow bridges, slides, a control center, crawl-in mountains in bright colors and the entire area is foam-covered.[9] Wired described it as "a warped Mario Bros. level".[10]
Dream Maker was an installation of rotating spherical objects with faces, similar to a miniature solar system. It was up at the Indianapolis Museum of Art from May 2, 2008 to November 9, 2008. As a part of Art Basel Miami 2008 Friends With You was the main featured artist at the Scope Art Fair. Their Fun House installation featured a large bounce house with a smiling face design, filled with inflatable balls.
"Rainbow City" was an interactive installation containing inflatables form 8' top 50'. Originally commisioned by the Luminato Arts Foundation in Toronto, Canada, Rainbow City was then exhibited ar Art Basel Miami 2010 presented with Paper Magazine, Pharrell Williams, and Aol. Then in June 6th, 2010 to open section 2 of the High Line in New York City.