Kenny Scharf On the Past, Present and Future of Street Art

Rising to popularity in the 1980s in New York City’s interdisciplinary East Village art scene alongside peers like Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat—and with Warhol as a mentor—Kenny Scharf was a pioneer of the street art movement, born out of the dynamic energy of the city, which he translated into a bold, vibrantly colored visual universe. Combining elements of the urban landscape, Pop art, graffiti and cartoon aesthetics, Scharf created a uniquely whimsical world of characters that humorously captures the forces and personalities that animated New York’s streets, often highlighting the distinct voices of its various neighborhoods. Now an upcoming show at the Brant Foundation pays homage to Scharf’s art and style, with a focus on how his artistic journey has been so deeply intertwined with New York’s history and development.

Co-curated by his longtime supporters Peter M. Brant and Tony Shafrazi in close collaboration with the artist, this major survey brings together more than seventy significant works (paintings, sculptures and objects) from the Brant’s collection, as well as major loans from private collections and institutions like the Whitney in New York and the Broad in Los Angeles.

The centerpiece of the show is When the Worlds Collide (1984), originally featured in the 1985 Whitney Biennial and a seminal example of Scharf’s enduring surrealist, psychedelic style, reflecting the anxieties and uncertainties of a specific historical and social moment with playfulness and humor. Despite his sometimes childlike aesthetic, Scharf has always been attuned to societal and political contexts, subtly embedding parodic commentary on American society and its paradoxes, which his characters and scenes frequently embody.

This concept is exemplified in works like George Simpson’s Barbecuing (1978), where Scharf presents the quintessential American man preparing hot dogs over a charcoal grill—he’s staged not in a backyard but in a bathtub. In another painting from the same year, Barbara Simpson’s New Kitchen, a QVC-like scene of a woman in a pink kitchen is disrupted by a dragon staring directly at the viewer. Both comic and subversive, these works, like others, see Scharf directly confronting the failed promises and contradictions of the American dream and its values.

During the exhibition’s press preview, Observer spoke with the artist to discuss his creative journey and his views on the past, present and future of street art, especially in our current political and societal American landscape.

Is there a central theme connecting the works in this show, and how do they reflect the evolution of your practice?

If you really look at what’s going on in most of these paintings, I would say the essential theme connecting them is that however joyous, colorful, fun and celebratory the capitalistic, consumerist American way of life may seem, there will always be this elephant in the room, which is what it’s doing to the earth. We have created a monster that we choose to ignore and look the other way, thinking that it will disappear, when in fact, all my fears are coming true as we witness the destruction. It is not an existential threat anymore. It is happening before our eyes, yet most continue to pretend it’s not happening or just keep pushing it down as if it doesn’t matter.

Your works capture a sense of chaos—”everything exists all together”—reflecting the density of urban spaces and the flood of images we constantly face. How does your work portray or reflect contemporary urban life?

Yes. I often question how everything exists at the same time: happiness, peace, joy, death and destruction. We are all living on this planet together; everything is happening at the same time. I wonder how this is possible for so many different realities to exist at once. In recent history, we have been bombarded with a constant influx of images of these various realities, yet we continue amid all the noise.

You were an active part of the East Village scene in the ’80s. What’s your relationship with the neighborhood today, and how do you feel it has changed? 

New York, especially downtown, will always be home to me as my young stomping grounds for discovery and artistic adventure with all of my cohorts. I have a story and memory for almost every street. As with everything and everywhere, things have changed. I avoid being nostalgic and live in the present, yet I am proud and grateful for my history.

As one of street art’s pioneers, how do you view it today? How have you seen it evolve and change?

The whole evolution of street art and graffiti, like hip-hop music, has taken on new levels internationally. We knew it was exciting in the early days, but it was hard to imagine how big it would become. It’s kind of incredible to see the influence of that time on the culture of today’s youth. It is worldwide and powerful.

“Kenny Scharf” opens at the Brant Foundation on November 13 and will be on view through February 28.