The Brant Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of a major survey of pioneering artist, Kenny Scharf. The exhibition brings together over 70 paintings, sculptures, and objects created throughout the artist’s expansive career, beginning with works from the late seventies.

The survey is compiled from the Brant collections as well as major loans from institutions and private collections, including The Whitney Museum of American Art (New York) and The Broad (Los Angeles). Kenny Scharf is co-curated by Peter M. Brant and Tony Shafrazi in close collaboration with the artist. Rising to popularity in the 1980s, during the East Village’s vibrant interdisciplinary art scene, alongside peers such as Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf (b. 1958, Hollywood, CA) pioneered the street-art movement. Scharf articulated a distinct artistic language that has endured throughout his practice. During this period, he also counted Warhol as a mentor, and the famed popartist’s impact on the young Scharf can be seen today in his appropriation of comic book figures and other pop culture icons, shown in Jetsons (1980) and Elroy Explanation (1981). Scharf’s surrealist, psychedelic scenes burst with a comical sensibility and playful spirit. His seminal painting, When the Worlds Collide (1984), which was included in the 1985 Whitney Biennial, is indicative of his enduring style and dynamic canvases. The artwork, created in a monumental scale, features cartoonish figures, whirling–almost moving–patterns, and highly contrasted colors. On the bottom right of the painting is Scharf’s version of Keith Haring’s classic baby figures, painted as an homage to the artist for allowing Scharf to use his studio to create the work. Scharf’s use of acrylic spray paint on canvas nods to his street-art style that was rarely seen or exhibited in museums or galleries. Scharf stated, “this painting is my idea of showing how everything exists at the same time. There’s peace; there’s chaos…everything exists all together.1” Whereas the painting is clearly influenced by “fun” as the artist has suggested, there is also an underlying anxiety to the work stemming from Scharf’s fear of nuclear catastrophe and other contemporary concerns. Amongst these chaotic scenes are Scharf’s jungle paintings, perhaps most notably Juicy Jungle (1984). Filled with characteristically amusing plants and figures with cartoonish faces, the canvas is absolutely brimming with color and action. In his pop-surrealist style, a term coined by Scharf, the artist toys with the balance between unease and humor in his encompassing works.