Pop Artist Kenny Scharf and Astral Uber Cadillac Come To The Raleigh Hotel For Art Basel Miami Beach

Future & past collide: At Art Basel Miami, Scharf's mixed-media installation will feature a 1960 Cadillac DeVille and a"closet" installation for which the artist is famed. The event opens with an interpretive dance at 10 PM poolside at the the Raleigh Hotel, an acclaimed art deco Andre Balazs property-- named "one of the sexiest pools in America" by Conde Nast. Scharf's superstardom began in the eighties in tandem with roommate Keith Haring and friends Jean Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol. Scharf's worldwide exhibitions have included the Guggenheim and Whitney Museums in New York; the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Germany; the Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, among others.

Miami, Florida (PRWeb) November 28, 2006 -- In conjunction with Art Basel Miami Beach, renown pop artist, Kenny Scharf announces a special exhibition and event December 7, 2006, at 10 PM, poolside at the legendary art deco hotel The Raleigh on Miami Beach. The exhibition features a single work of art and marks the second public showing of Astral Uber Cumulo Nimbus Atlantian Express, a mixed-media installation that is a 1960 Cadillac Coupe DeVille brought to life in signature Scharf-style.

Initially unveiled in May of 2006 at the Kevin Bruk Gallery, Astral Uber Cumulo Nimbus Atlantian Express drew hundreds of art and car collectors to Miami's art district its opening night. The December exhibit conjoining Art Basel Miami Beach will take place at the Raleigh Hotel, alongside what Conde Nast named "one of the sexiest pools in America," once the site of Hollywood water ballets starring Esther Williams.

At 10 PM, December 7, Scharf and a group of fellow artists will open the exhibit with an interpretive dance.

"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," says the artist whose work has appeared in galleries and museums worldwide for more than 20 years. "It's all time, no time, every time."

Astral Uber Cumulo Nimbus Atlantian Express delivers as promised. The piece is a psychedelic collision of past and future that captivates viewers in Scharf's multimedia universe. The artist's meticulous use of sound, lighting and art is so filled with personality that viewers find themselves transfixed in an otherworld of iconic flashbacks and fearless delusion.

Owned by a group of private collectors, the flawless 1960 Cadillac with only 5,200 original miles breaks ground at Art Basel as the only exhibit of its kind. Inside the car, mint condition antique upholstery is transformed into a den of pop culture and puckish humor. Outside, nothing is sacred. 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. The spirit of Scharf's highly celebrated closet installations lives on in the trunk of the 1960 Cadillac. A revolving disco ball, rope lights and mirrors cast streaks of light on animated characters spinning gleefully atop twirling turntables.

The scheduled Astral Uber Cumulo Nimbus Atlantian Express showing 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.

Scharf is an artist of overload," says 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 excerpts from "Kenny Scharf and the Pursuit of Happiness," Kenny Scharf, 1998, Ratcliff says of Scharf, "He encourages the hope that manic fun will, one day, evolve into happiness. Or perhaps, in some corner of a Scharfian landscape, that evolutionary leap has already been made."

Ratcliff adds, "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."

Kenny Scharf's work has been shown in the some of the most prominent museums in the world, including the Guggenheim and Whitney Museums in New York; the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Germany; the Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Scharf was also the first single artist to exhibit at the Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida.

In 1989, Scharf, helped to raise over $800,000 to preserve Brazilian tropical rain-forests in "Don't Bungle The Jungle," a gallery exhibit and performance. The sold-out concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music included performances by friends, Madonna, Sandra Bernhardt, Ann Magnuson, The B-52's and Bob Weir, while the Tony Shafrazi Gallery exhibit included donated works for sale by artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Christo, Oldenburg, Julian Schnabel, Francesco Clemente, David Salle, Eric Fischl, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Robert Longo.

Art Basel Miami Beach is regarded as the most important American art show as well as a cultural and social climax in the art world. The international show in Miami Beach is the sister event of Art Basel in Switzerland, considered the most significant annual art show worldwide for the past 37 years.

According to organizers, more than 2000 artists and 200 exclusive international galleries are expected to 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.

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