Kenny Scharf “DystopianPainting”

Almine Rech Gallery

[Image: Kenny Scharf "Zoom Way!" (2020) Oil and acrylic on linen with powder coated aluminum frame, 60 x 72 in. © Kenny Scharf - Courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech]

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Almine Rech presents the iconic American artist Kenny Scharf, and his inaugural solo exhibition of new paintings at Almine Rech New York this fall.

Opening September 10, Kenny Scharf: DystopianPainting will debut 18 paintings and a sculpture by Scharf, showcasing the energy and depth of his singular artistic practice. The artist’s new body of work reflects his continued immersion in the everyday life of urban society and circumstances of our time, blending quotidian and deeply relevant themes within the framework of his bright, frenetic canvases and enduring optimism.

Kenny Scharf: Chaos Interrupted

There was a time, long ago, before the outbreak of COVID-19, when I thought of paintings by Kenny Scharf as suitable for a child’s bedroom. His cartoonish characters – chortling faces, curvaceous amphibians, tousled trees – floated through a psychedelic cosmos bursting with such buoyant and cheerful spirits that they mirrored a child’s delight in all things fanciful and monstrous.

Funny, how the temperature of a time can affect a person’s vision. Fabulous, how many ways one can read a painting.

It’s April of 2020, and the fever dreams in Scharf’s new paintings look less like representations of exuberance than grotesque depictions of a lethal bioweapon aimed at humankind in retaliation for its prolonged abuse of our planet. As yet, we have no defense, except to barricade ourselves in our homes, and behind masks that hide the expressions of terror, anger, dread and grit that Scharf’s defiant party animals display.