4 • Thursday, May 20, 2021 • On the Edge of the Weekend
Unblurred lines: Keith Haring’s niece opening own show in Edwardsville
By Jill Moon jill.moon@hearst.com EDWARDSVILLE — Yenna Hill is used to being compared to her uncle, the late Keith Haring — and she’s OK with it. Hill — who will have her first national solo exhibition “Muse User” at Good Weather Gallery, 301 N. Main St., in Edwardsville — will surely talk about her uncle many more times at the exhibit’s opening reception 6-9 p.m. on Saturday. The works of her uncle have experienced a revival, especially with younger generations interested in pop art and styles that grew from the 1980s New York graffiti subculture.
“I think it’s so cool that younger kids are still into his work,” said Hill, 35, who was nearly 5 years old when Haring, at 31, died Feb. 16, 1990, of AIDS-related complications. Haring embraced free street and public art early on, drawing bold chalk figures in New York City’s subway centers on blank black advertising spaces. As his popularity grew and he was commissioned to create large-scale colorful murals, he still voluntarily produced public art for hospitals, schools and spaces for children — like his niece, Hill, now a mother of an 11-year-old daughter, Harlow Moon Hill. “I was wearing his artwork on shirts
Artwork by Yenna Hill
