10.26.14 with Kenny Scharf

This week the students worked with one of the artists featured in the exhibition Urban Theater: New York Art in the 1980s—Kenny Scharf! Scharf became well known in the East Village art scene of the 1980s along with friends Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. Scharf has described his visually stunning paintings, murals, sculptures, and large-scale installations as “Pop-Surrealism.” By combining popular imagery from cartoons of his youth with tropes of Americana and surreal science fiction–like settings, Scharf creates fascinating alternate worlds that are at once optimistic and subversive.

From Scharf’s website:

My ambition as a professional artist is to maintain the course that I set 30 years ago by establishing my work in the fields of painting, sculpture, and performance. Every project I undertake is building on my past experiences. My original approach is unchanged; it is a personal challenge to produce the best work possible every time. One very important and guiding principle to my work is to reach out beyond the elitist boundaries of fine art and connect to popular culture through my art. My personal ambition has always been to live the example.

Today Scharf led the teens in building their own “Cosmic Cavern,” an installation similar to his piece in the exhibition. Students were encouraged to bring five to ten objects from home, anything from old toys to plastic recyclables—the brighter and more colorful the objects, the better. By the end of class, these objects were transformed into an immersive, psychedelic, neon environment.

Class began with a brief artist talk in the lecture room. Scharf introduced himself and spoke in detail about a few keystone works from his 40-year career. After, Kenny led the teens downstairs to the Urban Theater exhibition.

Once we arrived in his area of the exhibition, Scharf talked about his interest in repurposing found objects. He explained that when he was very young he wanted to adorn the mundane items around his home with paint and sculptural objects, but wasn’t allowed. Kenny spoke in detail about his effort to make art a part of everyday life, a theme that runs throughout his entire career. Kenny spoke about a few of the objects from his Times Square apartment (which he shared with Keith Haring) that are now encased in a vitrine in the exhibition. These objects were the beginnings of Kenny’s famed Cosmic Closet, which morphed over the years into the spectacular Cosmic Cavern.

At that point, Scharf led the teens to the Cosmic Cavern he created for the exhibition. This surreal, three-dimensional, neon landscape could be thought of as a theater-in-the-round. Every inch of the immersive environment is covered with visual information. The majority of the materials that comprise the work are discarded objects that are painted in neon colors. The use of the black light gives an other-worldly, outer space vibe to the work. This gallery installation is a present-day version of what Scharf and Haring started together in their closet in the ’80s. The teens spent some time investigating its interior. The students were overwhelmed, and many of them mentioned how the environment is both playful and a little creepy, which entertained Scharf.

After we had all experienced the environment for a few minutes, the teens returned to the classroom and began to work. Prepped white boards were provided for each student along with gesso, black light paint, and materials for adhering their objects from home to their boards.

Students took apart TVs, cell phones, iPods, and a wide range of other items brought from home. Scharf gave guidance and inspiration, as well as a bit of elbow grease, during the class.

At the conclusion of class, we took the boards to the lecture room, turned off the lights, and lit the black light. The students' work seemed to emit a beautiful and eerie glow. Scharf encouraged everyone to continue to work on the pieces, then gave instructions for how we might create our own cave. We all agreed the works were much stronger together than on an individual basis. The finished cave will be installed during the Teen/Artist Project exhibition, scheduled for May of 2015.

It was a gift to have Scharf as our visiting artist. This was the first time that the Teen/Artist Project has had an opportunity to work with an artist of such stature, and Kenny was a delight. It was truly inspiring. We took photos under the black light and said our goodbyes. Before leaving for the day, Scharf was even kind enough to sign and personalize each of the teen’s sketchbooks.