Kenny Scharf

Kenny Scharf made New York street art museum-worthy

Kenny Scharf was born in 1958 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, in the US American state of California. He completed his art studies however in New York, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. In the art-friendly East Village of 1980s Manhattan, he developed his famous trademark, the so-called Cosmic Caverns, noise and smoke-like installations of black light and florescent graffiti, reminiscent of discos. The first of such projects was set up in 1981 in his apartment in Times Square which he shared at that time with Keith Haring. Haring shared Kenny Scharf’s approach of incorporating ostracised but popular street art as inspiration, as did Jean-Michel Basquiat who also belonged to the circle of underground artists. A few years passed until Kenny Scharf captured the sympathetic attention of New York museums with his novel understanding of art, during which time he drew notice to himself via the Fun Gallery and Tony Shafrazi. Finally, in 1985, the Whitney Museum of American Art invited him to its annual biennial. 

Between comic, merchandise and Surrealism

Kenny Scharf did not shy away from America popular culture in his search for inspiration for his artworks. Cartoon series such as the Stone Age Flintstones provided the artist with welcome templates, which he reshaped and elaborated, however, in his own particular way. Scharf himself named his characteristic, colourful and comic-like style Pop Surrealism – a more than fitting term for his often crazy, imaginary and seemingly fantastical pictorial worlds. Often, he took experiences from his life as inspiration for his artistic projects, creating art from his biography. The connection between noble art and the supposed lowlands of popular culture is not a coincidence, but a declared goal of the artist. To achieve this goal, he also takes unusual paths and puts his talent to commercial use, such as the cover design of the The B-52s fourth studio album, Bouncing off the Satellites, released in 1986. In 2002, Kenny Scharf even wrote the pilot episode for the planned animated series The Groovenians, which, despite good reviews, was not taken further. 

Creator of sculptures, murals and everyday objects

Kenny Scharf appeared in the documentary films The Universe of Keith Haring and The Nomi Song, dedicated to his old friends from the East Village movement, the painter Keith Haring and the singer Klaus Nomi, who died from AIDS. In 2016, Paul Tschinkel made Scharf the focus of a 28-minute film documentary that examined three of Scharf’s exhibitions in the Tony Shafrazi Gallery and included interviews with the curator Dan Cameron, the art dealer Tony Shafrazi and Scharf himself. Even after his return to California, Scharf gave his inexhaustible fantasy free reign, creating a colourful frenzy of sculptures, paintings, murals and even everyday objects. 

Kenny Scharf lives and works today primarily in his birth town of Los Angeles.