FUTURA 2000

FUTURA (b. Leonard Hilton McGurr, 1955, New York, NY) is an abstract artist whose multi-dimensional oeuvre—expressed across painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and graphic design—is as venerated for its kinetic power as it is for its sheer inventiveness.

As a pioneering force when graffiti intersected with the formal gallery ecosystem, he was the first to introduce abstraction to what was then an almost entirely letter-based genre. Exhibitions of his early work include presentations at Patti Astor's Fun Gallery, Tony Shafrazi Gallery, and MoMA PS1's landmark 1981 New York/ New Wave exhibition–exhibiting alongside his contemporaries, and friends, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf, Lee Quinones, and Rammellzee.

Throughout a career over five decades, exhibitions of FUTURA's work include museums such as The New Museum, New York; MOCA, Los Angeles; the Groninger Museum, the Netherlands; Yvon Lambert, Galerie De Noirmont; the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris.

In 2020, the Isamu Noguchi Museum presented FUTURA Akari, an installation of Akari light sculptures customized by FUTURA. In the same year, the artist created a large site-specific installation at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and was included in the exhibition Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip Hop Generation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Rizzoli New York published FUTURA: The Artist's Monograph, The most in-depth and comprehensive survey of the life and career of the artist to date. In 2022, Futura was honored by the non-profit arts organization Free Arts NYC, which established a scholarship in his name for his dedication to underserved youth in the field of art.

From September 2023 to February 2024, The University at Buffalo Art Galleries presented FUTURA2000: Breaking Out, the first comprehensive solo institutional examination featuring paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, studies, collaborations, and archival paraphernalia to showcase the artist’s polyphonic output. The exhibition spanned the University of Buffalo Art Galleries' two locations: the UB Center for the Arts and the UB Anderson Gallery.

FUTURA's practice embodies the duality of select contemporary artists dedicated to advancing their fine art practice while simultaneously forging dynamic collaborations with artists of varied mediums and global brands.  He has also created collaborative art editions with artists Takashi Murakami, Kenny Scharf, Virgil Abloh, and the Isamu Noguchi Foundation. Through both his creative practice and his commercial product brand and design studio company, Futura Laboratories, he has completed projects with a wide range of luxury houses and global companies such as Comme Des Garcons, Louis Vuitton, Off-White, French fashion designer Agnès b., and sportswear companies such as Nike and Supreme.

Eric Firestone Gallery and the creative and artist management agency ICNCLST/ represent the artist's fine art and commercial endeavors, respectively. The artist lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.