pop art

Kenny Scharf @ Paul Kasmin Gallery – NY

5 February 2011

If it’s a donut it has to be American, and if it’s pop it then has to be Kenny Scharf.

Moda de Mangue

In this exhibition @ the Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York he’ll be presenting a new series of large-scale paintings inspired by the surroundings of his coastal studio in Bahia, Brazil, plus a collection of his iconic donut paintings.

Vivagua

Born from the transitional zone where the jungle meets the sea, the paintings explore the richness of this landscape and humankind’s multilayered connections to it. While Scharf was completing two of the major paintings in the show, which depict underwater scenes, BP’s deep-sea oil rig explosion and subsequent spill took over the media, and Scharf, a longtime rainforest activist, incorporated elements of this event into his work.

Bear Junglita

Born in 1958, in Hollywood Scharf is an American painter who lives in Brooklyn, New York. The artist received his B.F.A in 1980 at the School of Visual Arts located in New York City. Scharf’s works consist of popular culture based shows with made up science-related backgrounds.

Scharf uses images from the animated cartoons popular during his childhood, such as The Flintstones and The Jetsons. The reason Scharf uses cartoon images in his art work is to bring popular culture into the fine arts. Scharf wants to see how far he can push the line between high and low art (cf. Lowbrow (art movement)) . Scharf to this day is making artwork that makes the viewers think about where the line is and how far has the artist pushed it. In 2001, he released a cartoon of his own, “The Groovenians” of which there was only one episode.

one of his latest donuts: Glazed Cruller in Space

The exhibition is divided in two: NATURAFUTURA, those new series of large-scale paintings inspired by the Bahia jungle at 293 Tenth Avenue, and THREE DOZEN! with his donuts shown at 511 W. 27th Street. Both running until February 26th, so you barely have a month!!  For more info visit Paul Kasmi’s website.

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