Foundation News
Open House Sundays
June 12th, 2016
Open House Sundays at The Brant Foundation
1-3pm on the following dates:
June 12th, 19th, 26th
July 10th, 17th
August 28th
September 4th, 11th
On view:
Jonathan Horowitz: Occupy Greenwich
Parking for The Brant Foundation’s open house Sundays will be located at Greenwich Polo Club. A designated parking area will be on your immediate left before Greenwich Polo check-in. If you wish to stay for the polo match please proceed to Greenwich Polo check-in to purchase a ticket. You may also purchase a discounted ticket online at: greenwichpolo.com.
Please contact us with any questions: 203-869-0611 or info@brantfoundation.org
About Occupy Greenwich:
Opening amid the presidential election season, the exhibition is comprised mostly of work made over the course of Barack Obama’s eight-year presidency. As such, the exhibition presents a timely opportunity to examine Horowitz’s ever-evolving practice within the context of the current political landscape.
Since the early 1990s, Horowitz has created work that combines the imagery and ambivalence of Pop Art with the engaged criticality of conceptualism. His work in video, sculpture, painting and photography examines the deep-seated links between consumerism and political consciousness, as well as the political silences of postwar art. Recent painting projects have explored the personal psychology of mark making, at times prominently employing the hands of others. Appropriation of both pop cultural and art historical sources figures heavily in the show, with imagery transformed through both technology and the human hand.
Anchoring the exhibition is the installation November 4, 2008, which re-stages the day eight years ago when Obama was elected president. In the piece, 19 hours of CNN and Fox News coverage (originally presented as live feeds) play on back-to-back monitors in the center of a room. Red and blue carpets divide the space into opposing sides and 42 official presidential portraits circle the room, with Obama’s portrait in waiting on the floor.
Upon arrival at the Foundation, viewers are confronted by a functional solar panel sculpture on the lawn, which powers Horowitz’s video Apocalypto Now inside. Using found footage, the film weaves narratives on the history of the Hollywood disaster movie, climate change, terrorism, and the Christian apocalypse. In another room, a human scale, bronze statue of Hillary Clinton greets visitors. Rendered in the style of a 1970’s greeting card figurine, the sculpture is captioned “Hillary Clinton is a Person Too,” evoking Clinton’s vilification as both a political leader and a powerful woman.
Notwithstanding its political undertones, viewer participation and social interaction are recurring tenets of Horowitz’s work. A sculptural installation titled Free Store invites viewers to leave objects that they wish to discard and take away whatever they would like. Another work, Contribution Cubes, is a series of Plexiglas donation boxes each dedicated to a different charitable or political organization. Suggesting minimalist sculpture and relational aesthetics, the work describes the population that passes through the exhibition space through the varying donation amounts that accumulate. 402 Dots, the first of Horowitz’s Dot Paintings, is a monumentally scaled work comprised of 402 canvases, each painted by a different person. Participants in the project were instructed to paint a perfect, solid black dot with an 8-inch diameter in the center of a 12-inch square canvas, using only provided paint and brushes. The resulting dots all differ in size, shape, position, and texture. The paintings are hung in a brick pattern, suggesting a blown-up field of irregular Ben-Day dots. Like a vast population, together they create a paean to human struggle, acceptance, and individuality.
Current Exhibition
- Keith Haring
Keith Haring
New York March 11th to May 31st, 2026
*Please note, some works in this exhibition contain mature imagery.
The Brant Foundation announces Keith Haring, an exhibition of works by the American artist. Revisiting Haring’s formative years of 1980–1983, the exhibition traces his meteoric rise from the subways of New York to international fame. Opening to the public March 11, 2026, the exhibition will be on view at the Foundation’s East Village space in the bustling downtown neighborhood where a young Haring began his career.
“We are honored to be working again with Dr. Dieter Buchhart and Dr. Anna Karina Hofbauer to present an important selection of works by Keith Haring from a pivotal moment in the artist’s career and in our Nation’s history,” said The Brant Foundation’s founder, Peter M. Brant. “Haring was a champion for important causes of his time, particularly the AIDS crisis. He used his art to support his tireless activism and advocate for change, inspiring millions with his distinct style.”
Keith Haring (American, b. 1958, d. 1990) remains one of the most celebrated and influential figures in American art, renowned for breaking traditional art world boundaries and transferring the energy of the East Village’s streets to galleries. Emerging from the downtown New York subculture of the early 1980s, Haring took inspiration from the everyday urban spaces he inhabited. From his spontaneous, early-career chalk drawings in subway stations, to his vibrant, pop-inspired works that addressed social issues ranging from the AIDS epidemic to the drug crisis, Haring shepherded a body of work that was both visually dynamic and socially engaged.
The exhibition, curated by Dr. Dieter Buchhart and Dr. Anna Karina Hofbauer, features a selection of landmark masterworks that defined Haring’s early career. Included are works from the artist’s 1982 exhibition at Tony Shafrazi Gallery, where Haring’s legendary Blacklight Room immersed audiences in glowing, ephemeral color, as well as from the FUN Gallery show of 1983, a pioneering venue on the Lower East Side that championed the fusion of street-art and gallery culture.
Buchhart cites the timelessness of Haring’s work as inspiration for the exhibition, stating, “Like a positive humanist virus, Haring’s urban guerrilla art lives on in our collective memory, fighting against ignorance, fear, and silence. 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.”
Throughout his career, Haring crafted one of the most recognizable and celebrated artistic styles with a series of iconic symbols, themes, and motifs that permeated his work. It was this instantly identifiable and exuberant quality that helped drive the artist’s career. Crafted with baked enamel on metal, his 1981 untitled work showing a pink smiling face serves as a predecessor to the digital age with its emoji-like iconography, highlighting Haring’s desire for a universal system of communication. Haring’s frequently repeated symbols were a constant throughout his work, which developed its own – almost geometric – language. In another untitled work from 1981, the artist’s trademark dogs are seen in a scene filled with rhythm and infectious energy. Often acting as lively companions or symbolic messengers, the dogs embody a playful pleasure in the show of shared experience. Surrounded by signature, energetic lines, the composition itself seems to vibrate with life. Haring’s mastery of space through line is demonstrated in the artist’s 1982 untitled work, depicting a psychedelic Mickey Mouse, through his ability to capture movement and subversive energy in fluid, uninterrupted ink strokes. The painting stands out as an example of his playful takes on distinctly American imagery, a recurring aspect of not only Haring’s works, but Neo-Expressionists and Pop artists working in the same period like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf, and Andy Warhol.
With this presentation, the Brant Foundation’s East Village location continues its commitment to celebrating the legacy of artists who defined New York’s downtown art scene of the 80s. Following major surveys of Jean-Michel Basquiat (2019), Andy Warhol (2023), and Kenny Scharf (2024), the Foundation now turns to Haring, reaffirming its dedication to preserving the history of this pivotal cultural era.
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Media Contact
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Third Eye
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