Damaged goods?: Keith Haring x Retna – Art Basel Hong Kong 2013

In a space 75 floors above Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, Art Basel Hong Kong attendees surveyed large canvases of one young artist’s iconic works seamlessly blending into another young star’s paintings for a mere four-hour exhibition.  More than 40 works of two Americans hailing from two coasts, the late New Yorker Keith Haring and L.A.’s Retna, hung side by side, drawing from similar inspirations of graffiti, symbols and street art.

Retna’s paintings, influenced by hieroglyphics, surround a Keith Haring print. (photo by Yuan-Kwan Chan / Meniscus Magazine)

A neatly placed gash seared through one of Retna’s painted murals.  While this initially looked like an artistic statement, reports from the New York Post surfaced that the artist had earlier gotten into a fight with one of the handlers at the event, throwing beer bottles at his own works and damaging at least one.

An artistic statement by Retna, an accident or both? (photo by Yuan-Kwan Chan / Meniscus Magazine)

Additional photos: Keith Haring x Retna – Art Basel Hong Kong 2013, Central Plaza
all photos by Yuan-Kwan Chan / Meniscus Magazine