Exuberant exhibition of Pop Art icon Keith Haring headed to the CMA
Press Release
July 31, 2025
Radiant Vision opens September 27, 2025
Columbia, S.C. – The Columbia Museum of Art presents major fall exhibition Keith Haring: Radiant Vision, on view from September 27, 2025, through February 15, 2026. Most recently on view at the Pop Art Museum, Seattle, this internationally touring exhibition celebrates the life and work of iconic artist Keith Haring.
“Keith Haring’s art was a pop-culture spark ¬— fast, fearless, and drawn from the concrete heartbeat of New York,” says CMA Executive Director Della Watkins. “With Radiant Vision, the Columbia Museum of Art offers audiences a powerful and playful tribute to Haring’s enduring belief that art belongs to everyone.”
Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, Keith Haring (1958–1990) emerged as a shooting star of the legendary New York art scene in the 1980s. His signature images include dancing figures, a “radiant baby,” a barking dog, a flying saucer, hearts, and figures with televisions for heads. He became friends with fellow artists Kenny Scharf and Jean-Michel Basquiat and grew interested in the color graffiti art of the city’s streets. Haring met Andy Warhol at a gallery exhibition in 1983, and Warhol became Haring’s mentor, friend, and the theme of several of his pieces, including “Andy Mouse.”
In the early ’80s, Haring found a highly effective medium that allowed him to communicate his work with a wider audience — he created chalk drawings on the unused advertising panels in New York City subway stations. These drawings represented a unique conflation of studio practice and public art, cartoons, and graffiti. They became familiar to commuters, who would often stop to engage with the artist. He also attracted the attention of city authorities, who arrested him for vandalism on numerous occasions.
Haring was openly gay and socially conscious, and his murals often reflected his position on social issues. He sought to raise awareness of AIDS, fought against the proliferation of drugs, and advocated for the end of Apartheid. Haring’s oeuvre, from street art to gallery shows, the Pop Shop, and commercial work, is deeply rooted in and reflective of the concept of “art for the people.”
His simply drawn figures were soon to be found on watches and cars, T-shirts and shopping bags, turning Haring into one of the best-known artists of his generation. Radiant Vision is a collection that features over 250 original works including drawings on paper, lithographs, silkscreens, posters, and other items that illustrate the entire span of Haring’s heartbreakingly short but incredibly prolific career.
The exhibition also includes the work of LAII (Angel Ortiz, b. 1967), an artist known for his collaborations with Haring. LAII’s career took off in 1980 when Haring, fresh from the Pennsylvania suburbs, encountered his “Little Angel” tag on a New York street and sought him out.
The regional debut of Keith Haring: Radiant Vision will be celebrated with an early evening preview party on Friday, September 26, as well as a playful daytime program on Saturday, September 27.
Single Source Traveling Exhibition provided by PAN Art Connections.
Keith Haring: Radiant Vision is presented through the support of our generous sponsors and grantors. Silver sponsor: Dominion Energy. Bronze sponsors: Dr. Suzanne R. Thorpe and Dr. John W. Baynes. Friends sponsors: Joseph Bruce; Suzanne and Robert Clawson; Metro Wines Asheville; Beth and Matthew Richardson; Sandy and Sam McGuckin. Grantors: City of Columbia; Experience Columbia SC; Richland County Government; South Carolina Arts Commission; Discover South Carolina.
Image:
Keith Haring at work in studio. Photo ©1982 Allan Tannenbaum / sohoblues.com.