CHITO International Built a Mythology

## The Weight of Recognition Recognition feels like electricity running through your hands when you first see them. Those smirking, cartoon dogs. The malevolent pups with their sinister grins. You know them before you know the name behind them: CHITO International, the 28-year-old Seattle-born artist who transformed street rebellion into luxury collaboration gold. ## What Lives on Canvas Chito's signature exists in the tension between destruction and creation. His airbrushed characters live on barbed wire, Japanese washi paper, and rare Gore-tex jackets sourced from their original contexts. The "Distance Pups" series, launched in 2017, features cartoon dogs set against various backdrops, each one carrying what curator Bergen Hendrickson calls "dripping hallmarks" of the artist's experience. These aren't just illustrations. They're transgressive structures that challenge the sanctity of luxury objects while maintaining their elemental character. ## The Historical Anchor Chito occupies the same liminal space that Pop Art masters like Andy Warhol and James Rosenquist carved out decades earlier, where commercial culture meets fine art through mechanical reproduction. But where Warhol silkscreened celebrities, Chito airbrushes his own mythology onto Supreme drops and Givenchy pre-collections. His practice sidesteps the "graffiti" label through nuance, existing at an intersection where value itself gets recontextualized. From tagging at Centennial Skate Park in Las Vegas at age 12 to collaborating with Matthew M. Williams at Givenchy, his trajectory reads like street culture's revenge on the establishment. ## What Comes Next Chito launched his namesake brand at the end of 2024 with an Asics collaboration and Dover Street Market New York pop-up. His 2025 Spring/Summer collection includes hand-painted quilted jackets and multi-functional denim, expanding from one-off craft to global production. Solo exhibitions continue worldwide, most recently "CHROME RAIN BLACK CLOUDS" at Allouche Gallery in Los Angeles (2023). Watch for his Distance Pups to evolve beyond two dimensions. The concrete CHITO Pup sculptures suggest he's thinking architecturally now. ## The Whispered Truth Every luxury brand needs its street credibility translator. Chito speaks both languages fluently.