- Only in New York can you find the view of an outstanding mural by a famous pop artist partially obscured by garbage cans!
- American pop artist Kenny Scharf painted this colorful mural. The trash cans are courtesy of restaurant Beauty & Essex as this is its rear exit.
- Born in Hollywood in 1958, Scharf moved to NYC and graduated from the School of Visual Arts.
- He was a member of the burgeoning East Village art scene in the 1980s and a contemporary of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, who also happened to be his roommate for a time.
- In a closet in the apartment he shared with Haring, Scharf created his first trippy Cosmic Cavern. The Cavern was later recreated in the basement of a Brooklyn warehouse and became a legendary all-night DayGlo disco party. Read more about it on Art Nerd, one of our favorite NYC Art sites.
- Scharf’s work pulls from pop-culture and sci-fi fantasy. He is famous for his cheerful, swirling blobs like those you see here. Some call them the precursor to the emoji.
