AXEL ARIGATO LAUNCHES COLLECTION WITH ARTIST KENNY SCHARF

Axel Arigato has launched a collaboration with world-renowned American artist Kenny Scharf. The nine-piece capsule collection combines classic Axel Arigato footwear and ready-to-wear silhouettes with characteristic Kenny Scharf artwork, a unique and creative pairing of Scandinavian and American sensibilities.

The collection comes shortly after Axel Arigato opens its first store in New York at 273 Lafayette Street and while two major Scharf shows are open in the city.

Born in California in 1958, Kenny Scharf rose to fame in the 1980s New York art scene, working and socializing with Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Andy Warhol. Inspired by the garish and geometric cartoon worlds of The Flinstones and The Jetsons, Scharf developed a distinctive painterly style composed between the movements of pop, surrealism, and street art.

Since then, his work has become synonymous and instantly recognizable by trademark colorful, cartoonish faces, swirling shapes, and cosmic/psychedelic iconography. New York, too, has become a city deeply entrenched within the Scharf aesthetic as both inspiration and canvas during his meteoric rise. He is self-professed not as a graffiti or street artist but as anti-establishment, choosing the city’s exterior spaces to allow immediate visual access and connection with the masses.