Keith Haring’s Painted Cars Roll Into New York for a Brief West Village Run
Two vehicles painted by American artist Keith Haring (1958–1990) are making their New York debut this month, bringing the artist’s graphic, semiotic language off the wall and onto the street. From April 9–19, “Keith Haring: In The Street” will be on view at Free Parking, 16 Morton Street, a West Village space operated by CART Dept.
On display are a bright 1963 Buick Special and an imposing 1971 Series III Land Rover, both owned by collector Larry Warsh. A representative for Warsh said the cars are typically kept in a warehouse just outside the city, underscoring how rarely these works are encountered in public.
Haring never owned either vehicle. The Land Rover was painted in 1983 for Switzerland’s Montreux Jazz Festival, with the event’s name embedded amid a dense tangle of Haring’s signature symbols. Warsh acquired the Land Rover directly from the car’s producers.
The Buick carries a different kind of origin story: Warsh believes it is the first car Haring ever painted. It was made as a gift for the architect of Haring’s iconic Soho Pop Shop, whom Warsh believes was Moore & Pennoyer. Together, the two vehicles offer a compact timeline of how quickly Haring’s practice moved between public space, design, and the art market’s expanding definitions of what constitutes an artwork.
The pair previously appeared together publicly about 10 years ago at Los Angeles’s Peterson Automotive Museum. Their arrival in New York lands amid a broader spring season of renewed attention to Haring’s early, foundational work. The Brant Foundation is currently presenting an exhibition of Haring’s key works through May 31.
The Free Parking presentation also aligns with a forthcoming publication and museum exhibition. “Keith Haring in 3D,” a book edited by Warsh and published by Phaidon, is scheduled for release on April 22. In June, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art will open an exhibition of the same name, “Keith Haring in 3D,” on view June 6, 2026–January 25, 2027, at 600 Museum Way in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Logistics will make the New York showing especially time-sensitive for one of the vehicles: the Buick is set to depart for Crystal Bridges on April 14, while the Land Rover will remain on view in New York for the full April 9–19 run.
To mark the cars’ New York debut, CART Dept. is organizing a series of public conversations that situate Haring’s legacy within the living ecosystem of street culture. On April 11, choreographer and longtime New Yorker Muna Tseng will appear with downtown cultural critic Carlo McCormick for “Stories from the Street.” On April 14, Powerhouse Arts leader Eric Shiner will join muralist Marka27 for “When Street Art Becomes Sculpture.” Warsh will close the program on April 18 in conversation with Brad Gooch, Haring’s definitive biographer, focusing on the artist’s New York years.
In a city where Haring’s imagery can feel both ubiquitous and strangely flattened by reproduction, these vehicles restore a sense of scale and physical risk: paint meeting metal, iconography meeting traffic, and an artist’s public-facing vocabulary reasserting its original charge.
“Keith Haring: In The Street” is on view at Free Parking, 16 Morton Street, New York, April 9–19, 2026. “Keith Haring in 3D” opens at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, June 6, 2026–January 25, 2027.
