KENNY SCHARF: LOOK BOTH WAYS

Ross + Kramer is pleased to present Look Both Ways, a survey exhibition of work by Kenny Scharf.

April 17 – June 28, 2025

Coined as the father of street art, Kenny Scharf rose to popularity in the 1980s, during the East Village’s art movement that saw the emergence of punk, Neo-Pop and Neo-Expressionist painting, and graffiti art. Working with spray paint on canvas nods to his street-art style, which he translates into a bold, vibrant candy coated visual universe. Combining elements of his urban landscapes, Scharf creates a uniquely whimsical world of characters that humorously reflects on popular culture, science fiction, environmental concerns and existential fears.

Look Both Ways demonstrates Scharf’s surrealist, psychedelic scenes that depict cosmic landscapes filled with smiling flowers, globular creatures with cartoonish faces, and swirling forms set against splattered, textured backgrounds. In Portalis (2020), the cosmic blue painting transports viewers into an alternate reality populated with flowing planetary forms, luminous green orbs and a smiling purple tree that inhabit this extraterrestrial environment. The transition from painting to sculpture is visible in the smiling tree as it breaks free from its 2D confines, materializing into the sculpture Paradis Perdu (cutout) (2022). The orange cartoon-faced trunk with expressive eyes supports clusters of more cartoon-faced yellow blossoms, purple flowers, and green vines. 

Yet, despite Scharf’s playful aesthetic, an underlying anxiety permeates his work, the artist himself has noted, "If you really look at what's going on in most of these paintings... however joyous, colorful, fun and celebratory the capitalistic, consumerist American way of life may seem, there will always be this elephant in the room, which is what it's doing to the earth."

This duality is particularly evident in News Now (1988), where vibrant colors and playful shapes are juxtaposed with words like "ozone," "dangerous chemicals," and "chlorofluorocarbon.” Together, these works create an immersive journey through Scharf's distinctive universe, where spontaneity and imagination coalesce into a singular artistic vision.