Kenny Scharf is an American painter born in 1958 in Hollywood, California. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. He won notoriety and fame in New York in the 1980s. He is fascinated by the surrealist and pop art movements. In 1978 he moved to New York to study at the BFA School of Visual Arts where he graduated in 1980. He hung out with friends such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, and Keith Haring.
His graffiti paintings are a new “pop abstract surrealism,” featuring cartoon-like installations that look like aliens and that have become colorful cultural icons. Scharf uses images from popular culture, especially from TV, such as the Jetsons, the Flintstones, and the Simpsons, to bring art to everyday life. His art highlights a kind of eternal youth, a utopic colorful pop world full of comical monsters, floating donuts, and one-eyed creatures.
Scharf uses different painting techniques such as acrylic, dust, and spray paints. His artworks can be seen around the world in private and public collections such as, for example, at the Guggenheim and Whitney Museums in New York, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
