Kenny Scharf is an American painter born in 1958 in Hollywood in California. He is still currently living and working in California in Los Angeles. This artist gained his 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 hanged out with friends such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol or Keith Haring.
His graffiti paintings are a new “pop abstract surrealism” which feature cartoon-like installations which look like aliens and became cultural colourful icons. Kenny Scharf uses images of popular culture, especially the ones from TV, such as the Jetsons, the Flintstones or 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, donuts in space and one-eyed creatures.
Kenny Scharf uses different painting techniques such as acrylic, dust, spray painting. You can see his artworks all around the world in private or public collections such as, for example, Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.