Kenny Scharf

Born in Los Angeles, Kenny Scharf rose to prominence in the New York art scene in the 1980s as part of a dynamic group of artists including Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. He has since returned to California, but he has retained the playful Pop aesthetic for which he is internationally renowned. In addition to paintings, Scharf has made animated shows for Cartoon Network, bronze sculptures, customized cars and many installations. Kenny's paintings immerse viewers in a word of visual stimulation, where Tanguyesque spacescapes or lush jungles serve as a metaphor for the power of unbounded imagination. This book takes us on a personal visual history of Scharf's experiences and activities in the downtown art scene, where he met idol Andy Warhol and hung out with Basquiat and a colorful cast of his contemporaries, up to his most recent work, which has never been published. His work is instantly recognizable, with idiosyncratic cartoon creatures popping up in the oddest of places: in paintings, on functional objects, or piled up on top of each other to form huge totem-poles. Kenny Scharf's key galleries: Paul Kasmin Gallery, NYC, Tony Shafrazi Gallery, NYC. Key collections: Pasadena Museum of Contemporary Art, CA, Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Miami Art Museum, The Jewish Museum, NYC, Guggenheim Museum, NYC, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Whitney Museum of American Art, Eli Broad Foundation, Los Angeles, CA, Sogetsu Museum, Tokyo, Japan, Museum of Art, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT, Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, FL, The Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL, Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany, Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, New England Museum for Contemporary Art, Brooklyn, CT, Paterson Museum, Paterson, NJ, Brant Foundation, Greenwich, CT, Patrick Lannan Foundation, Los Angeles, CA.