Above Image Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum. All Additional Photos By Gail
Spring has sprung, and the cherry blossoms are in serious bloom out front of the Brooklyn Museum, where from now until July 8th you can see an exciting retrospective on the early career of the late Keith Haring. Here in downtown NYC, especially, Haring’s humorous yet socially provocative, instantly recognizable pop art images are enduring and almost ubiquitous even 22 years after his death. I’ve always been attracted to Keith’s clever line drawings and the sense of humor inherent in his work, but it wasn’t until I watched Christina Clausen’s 2008 documentary The Universe of Keith Haring (rent it on Netflix) that I realized what a true visionary and genius he was. It seems that the great ones always leave us too soon. Continue reading Must See Art – Keith Haring: 1978–1982 at The Brooklyn Museum→
Contemporary Pop Artist Kenny Scharf was born on this day, November 23rd in 1958. It was almost a year ago today as well that Geoffrey and I were walking up Houston Street on a cold Black Friday evening when we passed Kenny as he worked on his amazing Houston Street Mural, (see image above or click on link) which has sadly been replaced several times since then. Happy Birthday, Kenny!
The scene inside I-20 Gallery was as hot as the temperature outside for last night’s opening of Make Skateboards, a group exhibition and pop-up skate shop that has to be one of the most fun and original exhibits I’ve seen all year. Conceived as a throwback to the days when art took precedence over branding and a welcoming vibe met you at the door, the show is a playful take on running a skateboard shop, transforming I-20 into a functional retail space. While open, the shop will be offering a custom line of artist-designed skateboards, skate-related ephemera and accessories, original artwork, vintage objects, custom furniture and clothing by up-and-coming New York designers. You gotta check this place out!
Take a look at any of the dozen or so paintings by LA-based artist Nathan Spoor on view now at NYC’s Bold Hype Gallery, and it’s obvious that you never, ever have to grow up if you don’t want to. Phantom Passport is the artist’s latest collection, featuring new paintings created by Spoor over the last two years. When you examine the image density in these paintings, which depict characters from storybooks or the artist’s own fecund imagination, toys, games and strange, dreamlike interactions and landscapes, you can see how it would take months for Spoor to fine tune each canvas. Continue reading Bold Hype Presents Nathan Spoor’s Phantom Passport→
While this in no way makes up for the having been forced to miss the Hot Glue Hullabaloo exhibit because the people who own the gallery-that-will-not-be-named could not be bothered to honor their posted business hours for half the exhibit’s run (thanks, not!) it was an unexpected treat to stumble upon one of two new Kenny Scharf exhibits concurrently running at both locations of the Paul Kasmin Gallery in Chelsea.
