Kenny Scharf (born 1958 in Los Angeles, where he currently lives and works) is an American painter. In 1978 he moved to New York to study at the BFA School of Visual Arts from which he graduated in 1980. He befriended artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat,
Andy Warhol, and
Keith Haring, and gained notoriety in the 1980s in New York for bridging contemporary art and graffiti. Scharf uses images from popular culture, especially from TV cartoons such as The Jetsons, The Flintstones, and The Simpsons, to bring art to everyday life. His art highlights a kind of eternal youth, a utopic colorful pop world full of comical monsters, floating donuts, and one-eyed creatures.
