Kenny Scharf: Kolors

Published on the occasion of Kenny Scharf's (born 1958) exhibition Kolors at the Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York, this publication presents the artist's new body of Pop-Surrealist work, which includes monochrome paintings and large-scale sculptures. An in-depth photo essay explores Scharf's world, while Jeffrey Deitch's text provides an insider's view of the artist's influence in contemporary art. Scharf's use of airbrush-like oil and acrylic paint embodies the presence of...
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Published on the occasion of Kenny Scharf's (born 1958) exhibition Kolors at the Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York, this publication presents the artist's new body of Pop-Surrealist work, which includes monochrome paintings and large-scale sculptures. An in-depth photo essay explores Scharf's world, while Jeffrey Deitch's text provides an insider's view of the artist's influence in contemporary art. Scharf's use of airbrush-like oil and acrylic paint embodies the presence of street culture within contemporary art that he helped establish. In his sculptures, Scharf makes use of his iconic imagery, freezing expressive cartoon-like faces in curvilinear three-dimensional reflective forms. Scharf presents larger-than-life versions of three seminal characters from his pantheon of cartoon-like creatures. Two sculptures, "Squirt" and "Red Scary Guy," embody (respectively) happiness and anger, whereas the "Totem" towers 12 feet to the ceiling, stacking characters that showcase the range and interconnectedness of human emotions.