Keith Haring was an American artist and social activist known for his illustrative depictions of figures and symbols. His white chalk drawings could often been found on the blank poster marquees in New York’s public spaces and subways. “I don't think art is propaganda,” he once stated. “It should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination and encourages people to go further. It celebrates humanity instead of manipulating it.”

He moved to New York in the late 1970s to attend the School of Visual Arts, immersed himself in the city’s graffiti culture, and was then seredipitously discovered by Tony Shafrazi after being hired to paint Shafrazi's gallery walls in 1980. By the mid-1980s, he had befriended fellow artists Andy Warhol, Kenny Scharf, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and collaborated with celebrities like the singer Grace Jones.

Throughout his career, Haring made his art widely available through the location of his murals, as well as through the Pop Shop—Haring's own storefront which he used to sell his memorabilia. The artist’s mural Crack is Wack (1986), can still be seen today on a retaining wall along FDR Drive in Manhattan. Haring’s works can be found in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.

Tony Shafrazi is an influential art dealer, curator, and artist. He was born in Iran and raised in New York City, where he became a prominent figure in the art world in the 1970s and 1980s.

Shafrazi began his career as an artist, and was associated with the post-war American avant-garde scene. He later became a dealer, opening his first gallery in Soho in 1979. He quickly gained a reputation for his eye for emerging talent, and his gallery became known for showing the work of artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jeff Koons, and Keith Haring. It was Shafrazi's relatiopnship with Haring that would prove to be one of the most profound and prolific of his career.

In addition to his work as a dealer and curator, Shafrazi is also a collector and patron of the arts. He is a generous donor to museums and cultural institutions, and established the Tony Shafrazi Gallery Endowment Fund at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.