Internationally acclaimed American artist Kenny Scharf launches a series of individually painted surfboards to support Parley’s Global Cleanup Network with a special focus on Mexico
As an ocean lover, internationally acclaimed artist Kenny Scharf has customised 12 individually painted surfboards in support of Parley’s effort to end marine plastic pollution. All proceeds will benefit Parley’s Global Cleanup Network with a special focus on protecting the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico where the artist has spent numerous years and where Parley has been active since 2017. Each piece was hand shaped in collaboration by legendary surfboard maker Tim Bessell.
These surfboards unite the worlds of art and surfing as a messenger for the cause. Each is a surfable symbol and a call for eco-innovation, creativity and collaboration to protect our oceans. The surf community is equally vital to the Parley mission as are the artists — as they know the oceans like no others. The project is a synthesis of a surfer’s love for the ocean and an artist’s imaginative call for change.
“I have decided to support Parley for the Oceans because I am obsessed with plastic in our oceans and I jumped at the chance to do anything with other people that are also sharing that obsession.”
— Kenny Scharf
“Parley was born in the art community and wouldn’t exist without the enormous support of artists, curators, collectors, galleries and museums. Kenny Scharf’s contribution to Parley is a wonderful example of how an artist can use his work to create impact, his voice to encourage thousands of us to move forward and to believe that we can invent our way out of this global plastic crisis with creativity, ingenuity and passion.”
— Cyrill Gutsch, Founder and CEO, Parley for the Oceans
Kenny Scharf has been collecting plastic waste from the shorelines since the 80s, often using it to form playful art installations. His understanding of plastic’s never-degrading nature and its ecological cost is reflected in this practice. As we enter the most dangerous and stressful moment in our ecological human history, Scharf felt compelled to help Parley protect the oceans.
A painter and performer inhabiting the visual worlds of both street art and popular culture, Scharf’s graffiti paintings gained him notoriety and established a vernacular language on his own. Often working with improvisation, he creates playful, gestural pieces that blend stylized motifs with references to the surreal, science fiction, and icons of popular culture. Many of his larger works still adorn New York streets to this day. Despite the overall cheeriness—the seahorses and sharks and razor-teethed creatures of his oeuvre that ultimately leave viewers with a smile despite their menace, many of Scharf’s paintings are driven by environmental concerns.
A key figure in the iconic 1980s New York art and street art scene, together with Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, and Basquiat, Scharf’s signature style has prevailed over decades. His work has been exhibited and collected across major museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, in addition to others worldwide.
“When I am swimming in the ocean, I actually sometimes believe that I am a dolphin. I can hear them under the water, very high pitch, and I put my head up and they are jumping all around me. I feel very connected to dolphins.”
— Kenny Scharf
