Keith Haring’s art went where people would see it, first across New York subway stations, then onto cars.
Now two of the four vehicles Haring painted before his death are going on view together in New York for the first time at Free Parking, a new West Village gallery by CART Dept. The platform, founded by collector Larry Warsh, focuses on the automobile as an art object.
The exhibition, “Keith Haring: In The Street,” runs from April 9 to 19 at Free Parking, 16 Morton Street, New York. It marks the release of the book Keith Haring in 3D, published by Phaidon on April 22.
Warsh owns both vehicles in the show, a bright 1963 Buick Special and a 1971 Series III Land Rover. A representative said by email that he usually keeps them in a warehouse just outside New York City.
Haring did not own either car.
He painted the Land Rover in 1983 for Switzerland’s Montreux Jazz Festival. Warsh acquired that vehicle directly from its producers. The festival’s name appears within the vehicle’s dense group of symbols drawn from Haring’s visual language.
The Land Rover first appeared in public 10 years ago at Los Angeles’s Peterson Automotive Museum. It was shown there alongside the Buick that is now joining it in New York.
The 1963 Buick Special was the first car Haring painted. He made it as a gift for the architect of his Soho Pop Shop, who Warsh believes was Moore & Pennoyer.
The exhibition arrives during a busy stretch for Haring’s work in New York. The Brant Foundation is showing Haring’s foundational works through May 31.
Another Haring exhibition tied to the same book is scheduled to open in June at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. That show, also titled “Keith Haring in 3D,” runs from June 6, 2026, to January 25, 2027. The book is edited by Warsh.
The Buick is due to leave for Crystal Bridges on April 14. The Land Rover will stay on view for the full run of the New York exhibition.
CART Dept. is also staging a series of panel discussions around the show.
On April 11, choreographer and longtime New Yorker Muna Tseng will join downtown cultural critic Carlo McCormick for “Stories from the Street.” On April 14, Powerhouse Arts leader Eric Shiner and muralist Marka27 will discuss “When Street Art Becomes Sculpture.” On April 18, Warsh will join Haring biographer Brad Gooch for a conversation about the artist’s time in New York.
Haring made thousands of works in subway stations between 1980 and 1985, as New York began removing painted trains. By that point, he had turned to cars as another moving surface for his work.
“Keith Haring: In The Street” is on view at Free Parking, 16 Morton Street, New York, April 9 to 19.
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