Kenny Scharf is a painter and installation artist associated with the Lowbrow movement, and best known for work inspired by comic books and pop culture. Born in Los Angeles, CA, he studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and became part of the East Village art scene during the 1980s. His early work, such as Judy on the Beach (1962) and The Flinstones (1962), was strongly influenced by Hanna Barbera cartoons, but he gradually began to transition to biomorphic imagery. In 1985, the Whitney Biennial featured Scharf’s black light installations, such as his Closet #7, and the painting When Worlds Collide (1984). At the end of the 1980s, he began a series of Glob paintings, which were inspired by Abstract Expressionism and Surrealism. Scharf’s most recent series of paintings, titled Naturafutura (2010), depicts abstract swirls of black paint, inspired by his studio in coastal Brazil and the BP oil spill. He has held solo exhibitions at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey in Mexico, MoMA PS1 in New York, and the Pasadena Museum of Contemporary Art. He lives and works in Los Angeles.

Kenny Scharf

American

Futura (formerly Futura 2000), née Lenny McGurr, pioneered abstract street art in New York during the 1970s. While his contemporaries practiced traditional lettering, Futura combined text, imagery, thin aerosol lines, swaths of vibrant color, and a distinctive use of white space as he created dynamic, futuristic compositions; science fiction and computing technology have long informed his aesthetic. In the 1980s—alongside fellow artists Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Kenny Scharf—Futura began exhibiting works on canvas in fine art gallery settings. In the ensuing decades, he’s exhibited at such institutions as the New Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and his work has sold for six figures at auction. Futura has also collaborated with fashion brands such as Supreme, Comme des Garçons, Nike, and Off-White.

Futura

Main

Artist

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Kenny and Lenny