His later work often conveyed political and societal themes- anti- crack, anti- apartheid, safe sex, homosexuality and AIDS-through his own iconography. In 1986, he opened the Pop Shop as an extension of his work. He produced more than 50 public artworks between 19, many of them created voluntarily for hospitals, day care centers and schools. After gaining public recognition, he created colorful larger scale murals, many commissioned. Haring's popularity grew from his spontaneous drawings in New York City subways-chalk outlines of figures, dogs, and other stylized images on blank black advertising spaces. The Whitney Museum held a retrospective of his art in 1997. In addition to solo gallery exhibitions, he participated in renowned national and international group shows such as documenta in Kassel, the Whitney Biennial in New York, the São Paulo Biennial, and the Venice Biennale. Much of his work includes sexual allusions that turned into social activism by using the images to advocate for safe sex and AIDS awareness. His animated imagery has 'become a widely recognized visual language'. Keith Allen Haring (– February 16, 1990) was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s.
