Kenny Scharf is on a roll — again. The old-school street artist and new-school pop artist is making some of his best work ever and getting high visibility for it. His 2009 Wynwood Walls mural is one of the Miami project’s liveliest paintings, and his Cosmic Cavern installation in an Air Stream trailer there in December was a showstopper that had skate-kids lining up to get a peek. Scharf’s mural at Houston and Bowery in New York — a site made famous for graffiti art by his bud Keith Haring — has garnered lots of media attention for its mutating heads, and continuous maintenance and his upcoming Gatescapes project, which features 100 spray-paintings on storefront shutters, is already getting a buzz.
In the midst of this whirlwind, the unstoppable artist is fronting two solo shows at New York’s Paul Kasmin Gallery — one with large, colorful canvases of comical jungle scenes, angry oil spills, and animated seascapes worthy of SpongeBob, and the other with three-dozen small paintings of jumbo, beautifully rendered donuts that humorously float in the heavens.
Kenny Scharf: Naturafutura and Three Dozen! are on view at Paul Kasmin Gallery through February 26.
Click through a baker’s dozen worth of images — 12 delectable donuts and a surreal landscape — from the two shows.
Kenny Scharf, Pink Frosted Donut with Chocolate Sprinkles Over a Desert Landscape, 2011. Oil on linen, 24 x 24 inches, Courtesy Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
Kenny Scharf, White Frosted Cruller at Dawn, 2011. Oil on linen, 24 x 24 inches, Courtesy Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
Kenny Scharf, Chocolate Donut with Sprinkles on a Lovely Day, 2011. Oil on linen, 24 x 24 inches, Courtesy Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
Kenny Scharf, Powder Donut in Space, 2011. Oil on linen, 24 x 24 inches, Courtesy Paul Kasmin Gallery, New
Kenny Scharf, Chocolate Chocolate!, 2011. Oil on linen, 24 x 24 inches, Courtesy Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
Kenny Scharf, Glazed + Calm, 2011. Oil on linen, 24 x 24 inches, Courtesy Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
Kenny Scharf, St. Paddys Day Donut with Approaching Storm, 2011. Oil on linen, 24 x 24 inches, Courtesy Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
Kenny Scharf, Glazed Cruller in Space, 2011. Oil on linen, 24 x 24 inches, Courtesy Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
Kenny Scharf, Maple Gazed Donut over Fertile Landscape, 2011. Oil, acrylic and enamel on canvas, 101 x 129 1/4 inches, Courtesy Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
Kenny Scharf, Old Fashioned Donut Hovering on a Lovely Day, 2011. Oil on linen, 24 x 24 inches, Courtesy Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
Kenny Scharf, Pink Frosted Donut!, 2011. Oil on linen, 24 x 24 inches, Courtesy Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
Kenny Scharf, Chocolate Frosted Cruller on a Cloudless Day, 2011. Oil on linen, 24 x 24 inches, Courtesy Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
Kenny Scharf, Moda de Mangue, 2010. Oil, acrylic and enamel on canvas, 101 x 129 1/4 inches, Courtesy Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York