The Broad will present the first-ever museum exhibition in Los Angeles of Keith Haring’s expansive body of work and will feature over 120 artworks and archival materials. Known for his use of vibrant color, energetic linework and iconic characters like the barking dog and the radiant baby, Haring’s work continues to dissolve barriers between art and life and spread joy, all while being rooted in the creative spirit and mission of his subway drawings and renowned public murals: art is for everybody. Curated by Broad curator and exhibition manager Sarah Loyer, the exhibition will explore both Haring’s artistic practice and life, with much of the source material for the exhibition coming from his personal journals.  

Divided into ten galleries in total, the expansive exhibition will feature the breadth of mediums Haring worked within, including video, sculpture, drawing, painting, and graphic works, as well as representations from the artist’s enormous output of public projects, from the subway drawings to his public murals. 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 at the age of 31. Haring’s participation in nuclear disarmament and anti-Apartheid movements are featured prominently in the show, as well as works that take on complex issues that remain crucial today from environmentalism, capitalism, and the proliferation of new technologies to religion, sexuality, and race. In the last gallery, significant works from the late 1980s will be accompanied by framed posters illustrating the artist’s activism within the HIV/AIDS crisis. 

Major works held in the Broad collection such as Untitled, 1984 and Red Room, 1988 will be on view in addition to key loans from many institutional and private collections, including art, ephemera and documentation provided by the Keith Haring Foundation in New York, established by the artist in 1989. The show will feature immersive elements, such as a gallery lit by blacklight soundtracked by playlists created by the artist himself. Additionally, the Shop at The Broad will be transformed, taking inspiration from Haring’s artistic retail space The Pop Shop, which first opened in 1986 in the SoHo neighborhood of New York. Tickets to the exhibition will be made available in Spring 2023.

Following its debut at The Broad, Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody will travel to the Art Gallery of Ontario, in Toronto, from November 11, 2023 to March 17, 2024, and to the Walker Art Center, in Minneapolis, from April 27 to September 8, 2024.

Pre-sale tickets to Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody at The Broad will be made available Tuesday, April 11 at 10 a.m. (PDT) through Thursday, April 13 at 12 a.m. (PDT). Tickets for the general public will go on sale on Friday, April 14 at 10 a.m. (PDT).

Related Programs

On June 1, 2023, following the opening of the exhibition, The Broad will host an Un-Private Collection conversation at the Ace Theater downtown between choreographer and Haring collaborator, Bill T. Jones and Haring biography author Brad Gooch. Additionally, later in the summer The Broad teams up with iconic denizen of the 1980s East Village art Scene Ann Magnuson to reignite the energy of the infamous Club 57 with DJ sets by legendary artists who knew Keith Haring as well as younger artists paying homage to that period. Then, timed with the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, The Broad will present a special evening in August by Haring’s musical contemporaries. Additional programs and ticket information will be announced in late spring.

Image credit: Keith Haring, Untitled, 1982. Baked enamel on metal. The Broad Art Foundation. © Keith Haring Art Foundation.