Almine Rech: Kenny Scharf
"DystopianPainting"
After debuting 250 circular paintings at Jeffrey Dietch Los Angeles, Kenny Scharf returns with a concurrent exhibition called “DystopianPainting” at Almine Rech’s New York City gallery. The influential American artist is set to debut 18 paintings and a sculpture that expand upon the energy and depth of his prolific oeuvre. This new body of work features large-scale paintings featuring his pop surrealist motifs in brightly-colored forms.
With these pieces, the artist reflects on the everyday life of society and the unprecedented circumstances of our time. “Disarming but not innocent, Scharf’s paintings are cautionary tales of the good-natured mayhem he’s been causing since his student days in New York, in the late 1970’s. A stealth bomber with a sack of spray paints, he’d bicycle through the night to revive crumbling East Village walls and discarded appliances with his brilliant cartoons,” said journalist and art critic, Linda Yablonsky in a statement. “He worked with a speed necessitated by police who treated street artists as vandals, rather than as highly moral citizens who pushed back against officials to humanize the city they’d left for dead and make it a nicer, even a dazzling, place to live.”