Kenny Scharf

American painter and cross-disciplinary visual artist (b. 23 November 1958, Los Angeles, California); currently lives and works in LA. Kenny Scharf came to prominence as one of the active members of New York's East Village scene in the 1980s and a prolific collaborator of Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, among others. Scharf's "DIY" artistic approach includes various disciplines and mediums: painting, sculpture, fashion photography, video, performance art, and graffiti. His works are in public collections at The Museum Of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, MoMA, the Whitney Museum Of American Art, the San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro, and other international museums. Kenny Scharf moved to Manhattan to attend the School of Visual Arts, NYC, graduating with his BFA in Painting in 1980. The same year, he presented his collaborative video piece with Keith Haring, The Sparkle End, at the landmark "Times Square Show" exhibition by New York's Colab group. Kenny soon began organizing his Cosmic Caverns, immersive "black light" glow-paint installations (that also functioned as mobile disco parties). In 1987, Scharf created a "swing carousel" for André Heller's fictitious amusement park Luna Luna in Hamburg, which featured futuristic "rides" designed by renowned contemporary artists like Roy Lichtenstein, Salvador Dalí, David Hockney, Basquiat and Harring.