Menu

Subscriptions

Shop

Submit

Promote

The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Some of our past articles may not have images. Click here to see those that do.

Preview: “Born Again” by Kenny Scharf at Honor Fraser Gallery

Although he is best known for his humorous graffiti and imagery, Kenny Scharf has long been interested in more serious political topics. His solo exhibition "Born Again", opening this Saturday at Honor Fraser gallery, highlights his unique ability to make the mundane more fun. In his latest series, bright and colorful palette and wacky shapes are painted onto repurposed, found art. It's not all fun and games for the artist, who sees his comical approach as an act of defiance.

Although he is best known for his humorous graffiti and imagery, Kenny Scharf has long been interested in more serious political topics. His solo exhibition “Born Again”, opening this Saturday at Honor Fraser gallery, highlights his unique ability to make the mundane more fun. In his latest series, bright and colorful palette and wacky shapes are painted onto repurposed, found art. It’s not all fun and games for the artist, who sees his comical approach as an act of defiance. For example, his “Fukushima Landing” piece shows a dark colored character interrupting a beautiful landscape in a commentary about the Fukushima Japan nuclear disaster and its affects. Other works comment on themes of pollution and wastefulness that he believes has become synonymous with American culture. These bring to mind his earlier works of found object art like retro phones, washers and television sets, which will also be on display in a salon-style installation. This includes his collage and video art created between the years 1979-1984, on view for the first time. While “Born Again” offers passionately more abstract work from Scharf, it’s not necessarily a departure for the artist who has always been sensitive to social issues. Check out our preview of “Born Again” below.

Meta
Topics
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles

Philipp Igumnov’s Collages Insert Supernatural Elements into Everyday Situations

Russian collage artist Philipp Igumnov doctors old photographs to make them look like documentation of supernatural occurrences. An enormous cumulous cloud with doors and windows becomes a celestial residence; a woman holds up her palm to reveal a swarm of miniature UFOs; a soccer goalie dives to catch a speeding comet. Igumnov seems to enjoy messing with the idea of photography as a truth-telling medium and manipulates it to indulge his viewers' curiosity about aliens, ghosts, and the like.

Pablo Genovés Captures a Fallen Decadent World

These dramatic images of fallen Baroque interiors are the collage work of Spanish artist Paul Genovés. He stitches together photos of nature with postcards of 17th and 18th century places that he's collected from street markets. The result is both dreamy and disturbing with a strong impact- and not too far from reality. Primarily, his subject is bodies of water, like ice floating through a Venetian palace or waves crashing down the stairs of an old theater. Recent works also show forests taking root in palace halls.

Matthieu Bourel’s Bizarre Collages and GIFs Deconstruct Vintage Photographs

Since its inception, Hollywood has shown us an image of unattainable youth and glamour, though quite frankly, French collage artist Matthieu Bourel doesn't seem too impressed. Whether in his hand-cut collages or entrancing animated GIFs, Bourel deconstructs images of models and actors of a bygone era. He splices divas' head shots with anatomical diagrams, peeling away what looks like layers of skin to reveal veins and eyeballs. In other works, faces come off like masks only to reveal more removable faces underneath. Bourel's bizarre and slightly morbid work points to the illusions of the entertainment industry. He makes his viewers cognizant of the absurdity of our celebrity-obsessed culture through his strange sense of humor.

Thomas Spieler’s Cosmic Collages Juxtapose Human Culture with Nature

German-born collage artist Thomas Spieler creates intriguing multimedia works that play with the dualism that exists between the human and natural worlds. Spieler juxtaposes vintage black-and-white photographs of human figures with brightly colored photographs of more abstract forms. Many of the black-and-white photos look like they could be ads or pictures of movie stars lifted from old magazines, while others appear to be photographs of classical sculptures from antiquity. Meanwhile, the colorful photos are of objects found in nature, such as minerals, geological formations, butterfly wings and flower petals.
Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List
Follow us on our social networks

Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Tumblr

Shop

Subscribe

Subscription Details

Articles, About, FAQs, Submit, Promote, Distribute

© 2025 Hi-Fructose Magazine

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List