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“Fight with your teachers. If your teachers hate what you’re doing, it’s probably a good sign.” – Kenny Scharf

Kenny Scharf has been selected to be part of the first group of artists included in the Peanuts Global Artist Collective, with the first batch of murals having gone up in New York City‘s Hudson Square neighborhood on April 16, 2018.

In this video, Kenny Scharf speaks from his studio about his early days in New York City at the School of Visual Arts.

From SVA:

Kenny Scharf is an American painter and multimedia artist living in Los Angeles. He received his BFA in 1981 from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Scharf is best known for his work in the East Village art scene of the 1980s, with shows at Fun Gallery (1981) and Tony Shafrazi (1984), before having his work embraced by museums, such as the Whitney, which selected him for the 1985 Whitney Biennial. Art scribe Demetria Daniels, writing in “Downtown Magazine,” said about his work from this time that it “leaves you with hope, joy, play and optimism, and a sense of love.”[1] It was also during this period that Scharf created the cover art for the B-52s’ fourth studio album, “Bouncing off the Satellites.”

Scharf was a close friend and former roommate with graffiti artist and fellow SVA alumnus Keith Haring. Scharf created the first of his black-light installations, called “Cosmic Closets” (and later “Cosmic Caverns”) in the closet of his and Haring’s Times Square apartment. In 2004, Scharf appeared in “The Nomi Song,” a documentary about his friend and another New York icon of the ’80s, singer Klaus Nomi.

Featuring: Kenny Scharf (BFA 1980 Fine Arts); Chris Jessick (BFA 2006 Film and Video), director, producer, cinematographer; Miwa Sakulrat (BFA Film student), editor