Five decades of pop surrealist evocation from a leading exponent of graffiti art
Spanning the breadth of the American painter and graffiti artist Kenny Scharf's (born 1958) career, Emotional examines the artist's playful yet meticulous exploration of emotions. Long before emojis emerged to fill the emotional gap in digital communication, Scharf developed a visual language that infused ancient pictographic languages with pop aesthetics, resulting in exaggerated, evocative forms rendered in a hypersaturated color palette. Having pioneered Street Art in the 1980s alongside Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Scharf has expanded his practice to encompass sculpture, installation, performance and fashion design. Emotional showcases more than 120 artworks that are thematically organized by groups of emotions: Anger, Disgust, Fear, Happiness, Sadness and Awe. A noteworthy artwork includes Scharf's new installation, Beach Club, a transportive Californian beachside utopia.
STATUS: Forthcoming | 4/28/2026
This title is not yet published in the U.S. To pre-order or receive notice when the book is available, please email orders @ artbook.com
Five decades of pop surrealist evocation from a leading exponent of graffiti art
Spanning the breadth of the American painter and graffiti artist Kenny Scharf's (born 1958) career, Emotional examines the artist's playful yet meticulous exploration of emotions. Long before emojis emerged to fill the emotional gap in digital communication, Scharf developed a visual language that infused ancient pictographic languages with pop aesthetics, resulting in exaggerated, evocative forms rendered in a hypersaturated color palette. Having pioneered Street Art in the 1980s alongside Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Scharf has expanded his practice to encompass sculpture, installation, performance and fashion design.
Emotional showcases more than 120 artworks that are thematically organized by groups of emotions: Anger, Disgust, Fear, Happiness, Sadness and Awe. A noteworthy artwork includes Scharf's new installation, Beach Club, a transportive Californian beachside utopia.
