The Brant Foundation Takes a Tour Through Keith Haring’s East Village
Focused on his early defining era, the major showcase is set to open in March 2026.
Summary
- The Brant Foundation will open a major exhibition of Keith Haring works on March 11, 2026
- Hosted in the institution’s East Village space, the showcase marks a return to the neighborhood, critical in Haring’s artistic upbringing
- The exhibition will center works created in the years prior to Haring’s meteoric rise
This spring, New York’s Brant Foundation is turning back the clock to the East Village’s artistic heyday with a major Keith Haring exhibition opening on March 11, 2026. The eponymous showcase delves into works created during 1980-1983, breakthrough years that saw the beginning of the now-emblematic graphic lexicon of a generation. Fittingly, it will unfold in the foundation’s East Village space, not far from the subways, clubs and streets where these symbols took off.
Curated by Dr. Dieter Bucchart and Dr. Anna Karina Hofbaeuer, the exhibition gathers a selection of landmark works that defined Haring’s early career. Anchoring the show are pieces from his historic solo debut at Tony Shafrazi Gallery in 1982, as well as works from his 1983 presentation at FUN Gallery, a pioneering downtown venue that championed blending street art and gallery culture.
“Like a positive humanist virus, Haring’s urban guerrilla art lives on in our collective memory, fighting against ignorance, fear,and silence,” Buchhart said on Haring’s timelessness. “His humanist code resonates with a universality that transcends time and place. And in the spirit of today’s Emoji euphoria, we might well proclaim: For better or worse, we are all speaking Haring now.”
The upcoming Haring exhibition builds on the Brant Foundation’s ongoing programming centered around names that defined downtown New York, including the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol and Kenny Scharf. Housed in a former ConEd substation, the Foundation will become a stage for a living archive of the era, and Haring, returning to the East Village, feels right at home.
Keith Haring will be on view in New York from March 11 through May 31, 2026.
The Brant Foundation
421 E 6th St,
New York, NY 10009
