Keith Haring’s early subway drawings are the focus of a new exhibition opening at Moco Museum London this spring. Voice of the Street – Keith Haring’s Subway Drawings runs from 18 March for three months and presents around 30 chalk drawings created in New York between 1980 and 1985. The show places these works within a recreated 1980s subway setting, reflecting the environment where Haring first began making art directly in public spaces.
Before achieving international recognition, Haring used empty advertising panels in New York’s subway stations as a site for drawing with white chalk on black paper. The works were made quickly and without permission, often disappearing within hours as panels were replaced or cleaned. What remains is a record of a practice shaped by immediacy and public interaction. Figures including radiant babies, crawling figures and barking dogs appear across the drawings, forming the distinctive visual language that would come to define Haring’s work.
By presenting these pieces together, the exhibition looks at how the subway became an important setting for Haring’s early career and his belief that art should be accessible to everyone. The drawings capture a moment when the artist’s work moved beyond studios and galleries into everyday urban life, connecting with people as they passed through the city.
The exhibition will be on view 18 March-18 June at Moco Musuem, 1-4 Marble Arch, London, W2 2UH.
