Joseph Szkodzinski Keith Haring Drawing Series January 1982 © Joseph Szkodzinski 2018
As a teen growing up in New Jersey during the 1980s, artist Karey Maurice Counts set his sights on the downtown New York art scene. “I was looking for Andy Warhol, just like everyone else,” he remembers.
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Counts began travelling into Manhattan, following the nightclub and art gallery scene through publications like The Village Voice. While taking the subway around town, Keith Haring’s chalk drawings works soon caught his eye. In conjunction with the exhibition Keith Haring at the Tate Liverpool, Counts shares his memories of their first encounter, which would forever change his life.
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After learning about Haring’s Pop Shop, Counts headed into the Village to search him out. Bipo, the store manager, tipped Counts off to a photo shoot for a song titled “Crack is Wack”, which was going to be shot in front of the famed Harlem mural on April 22, 1987. He told him to bring some photographs of his paintings to show Haring.
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Read the Fill Story at Huck Online
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Tseng Kwong Chi Keith Haring in subway car, (New York), circa 1983. Photo © Muna Tseng Dance Projects, Inc. Art © Keith Haring Foundation
Karey Maurice Counts, Self-Portrait