KENNY SCHARF FURUNGLE 2 (BLUE)

“I’m just so freaked out because of the kids—they’re so innocent and pure and what the f–k is going to be there for them? Sorry, there’s no animals, they’re all extinct.”  

Back in 1981, KENNY SCHARF began trawling the streets of New York City armed with cans of spray-paint. He would apply his range of emotive, psychedelic cartoon faces to surfaces across the metropolis. A contemporary of JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT, KEITH HARING, and ANDY WARHOL, he grew up in California before moving east.

As a child surrounded by the ecology movement of the ‘60s, Kenny Scharf was predisposed to understanding the ramifications of this type of destruction, and his art has been screaming about the planet’s impending environmental collapse for nearly four decades. 

Furungle 2 (Blue) is reminiscent of the early Walt Disney Silly Symphony film Springtime, in which trees and flowers have smiley faces and dance around. But, The Furungle portfolio looks more like a psychedelic trip through this animation from the 1920s, and maybe a bad trip.

At first glance, everything seems cheery, almost cartoonish, until you realize some of the flowers are dying. “Lately, I feel the need to ultize the dire headlines we are all confronting on a daily basis as we enter the most dangerous and stressful moment in our ecological human history. Come on everybody we need to get together and do something!” Kenny Scharf said.

FURUNGLE 2 (BLUE) (2021) by Kenny Scharf an archival pigment ink print Silkscreen with high gloss varnish and diamond dust on Innova etching cotton rag 315 gsm fine. Furungle 2 (Blue) is an edition of 25 and is hand signed. For more information about the entire Furungle portfolio or Kenny Scharf please contact the gallery. Call for Value