Behold a Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby! Artist Kenny Scharf brings his Astral Uber Cadillac to Art Basel Miami Beach on December 7. FASHIONTRIBES TRAVEL BLOG
In conjunction with Art Basel Miami Beach, renowned pop artist Kenny
Scharf recently announced a special exhibition and event December 7, 2006, at 10
PM, poolside at the legendary Andre Balazs-owned art deco hotel The Raleigh on Miami
Beach. The exhibition kicks off with an interpretative dance by Scharf and a group of fellow artists, and features a single work of art and marks the
second public showing of a
mixed-media installation known as the Astral Uber Cumulo Nimbus Atlantian Express: a flawless 1960 Cadillac Coupe DeVille - with only 5,200 original miles - that is a psychedelic collision of past and future. It is reminiscent of the artist's 1985 black light installation
for Art in Action, at the Sogetsu Museum in Tokyo, Japan, where
Scharf's customized 1973 Cadillac, Dream Car exhibit opened in a
celebration that included performances with friends Ann Magnuson and
John Sex.
Inside the car, mint condition antique upholstery is transformed into a den of pop culture and puckish humor. Below the rooftop tiara, hood ornaments are redefined as florescent brains explode from twin fuchsia totem poles, and an elfin dinosaur stands watch over grinning orbs zooming through aqua vapors. In the trunk, a revolving disco ball, rope lights and mirrors cast streaks of light on animated characters spinning gleefully atop twirling turntables - a nod to Scharf's celebrated closet installations. "The exhibit is a combo of the futuristic -- the Cadillac, and the past -- the caveman dance, resulting in a time splat, when the future and the past collide, loosely. It's all time, no time, every time," notes Scharf, who first made a splash in the eighties, in tandem with roommate Keith Haring and friends Jean Michel Basquiat & Andy Warhol.
Over the past two decades, Scharf's work has appeared in some of the world's most prominent galleries and museums including the Guggenheim and Whitney Museums in New York; the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Germany; the Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida, and the Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. "Scharf is an artist of overload," explains art critic Carter Ratcliff. "He is also an artist of remarkable clarity, which means that the effect of overload is not the result of clutter or crowding. In Scharf's universe, the idea of form is inseparable from the effect of motion…Because Scharf has made himself permeable to our culture, his art can baffle interpretation. The label he invented for himself, 'Pop Surrealist,' is helpful here."
As the sister event of Art Basel in Switzerland, Art Basel Miami Beach is regarded not only as one of the most important art shows stateside, but throughout the world as well. Event organizers estimate that more than 2000 artists and 200 exclusive international galleries will exhibit works. Exhibition sites are located in the Miami's beautiful Art Deco District, within walking distance of the beach, noted hotels and acclaimed restaurants.
The deets on Kenny Scharf's mixed-media installation featuring his Astral Uber Cadillac at Art Basel Miami Beach:
- WHEN: December 7th @ 10 pm - an interpretative dance by Scharf and a group of fellow artists kicks things off
- WHERE: poolside at The Raleigh Hotel, Miami Beach (fun factoid: it was once the site of Hollywood water ballets starring Esther Williams) - RaleighHotel.com
- MORE INFO: KennyScharf.com
- via The Travel Snob
