Keith Haring's first-ever museum exhibition in Los Angeles debuts at The Broad

The exhibition explores Haring's artistic practice and life, with much of the source material coming from his personal journals.

Tony Cabrera Image
Thursday, May 25, 2023
Keith Haring's first-ever museum exhibition in LA debuts at The Broad
Works presented span from the late-1970s when he was a student at the School of Visual Arts in New York up until 1988, just two years before the artist died from AIDS-related illness.

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- From all the colors, to all the symbolism. It's all on full display at The Broad Museum in a new exhibit called "Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody."

"This exhibition dives into the work of Keith Haring, who was an artist who really came to prominence in the 1980s," stated Sarah Loyer, curator of the exhibit.

"He worked for just over a decade, mainly in New York City and really around the world during that time."

Loyer thinks this will finally help people tie the art to the artist, since this is the first ever museum exhibition of his work in Los Angeles.

"I think the show will really surprise our visitors who might recognize his imagery from commercial work to t-shirts that you find at Uniqlo, for example."

For Haring a wide variety of art was part of his mission, something he spoke about in a TV interview that's also on display.

In the video, Haring says, "I think it's more important to make a lot of different things and keep coming up with new images and things that were never made before than to do one thing and do it well. They come out fast, but it's a fast world."

Haring started out with chalk drawings in New York City subway stations. Once he started getting attention, his career exploded.

Loyer continued, "He went on to create works that were all different mediums and materials and address all sorts of political and social issues of the era. And I think that's what's so meaningful about this exhibition today."

She says his work continues to resonate and address those topics.

"From sexuality and race to consumerism, and of course, he spoke also to the AIDS epidemic, which took the artist's life in in 1990 at the age of 31.

The exhibit's on display through October 8.