Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide

January 14 - February 23, 1997

Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide is an in-depth museum exhibition of an artist who emerged in the turbulent 1980s international art scene. Pulsating with energy and overflowing with information, Kenny Scharf’s art infuses 60s pop icons and biomorphic forms with a symbolism reflecting electronic technology’s insistent grip on our most primal fantasies. 

Scharf’s ebullient and jarring images have reached a wide audience through their appearance on postcards, Absolut ads, calendars, and clothing, but the artist’s abundant studio works have yet to be featured in a comprehensive mid-career retrospective. Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide will explore the ambivalent fusion of high art and cartoon, technological aspiration and ecological devastation, myth and mass-media, and hedonism and spirituality inherent in Scharf’s work.