Growing 2 is a 1988 silkscreen on paper by the Pop-Artist and activist Keith Haring. The print stems from a portfolio that digs deep into Haring’s heart, the Growing series, which explores more directly the motifs of unity and egalitarianism that are predominant throughout all of his body of work. A believer in the democracy of art, Haring’s early style of graffiti street art remained a hallmark of his stamp on society. The artist brought the same energy to the subway walls as he did to his highly-grossing purchasable works. Using influences of Dr. Seuss, aboriginal art, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and comics of his childhood, Haring also confronted significant sociopolitical issues and used his art as activism with a directness that stripped the preciousness surrounding the treatment of previous artistic styles and made his works relatable and authentic. Naturally, this manner of operating resonated more with the masses.

Growing 2 depicts intertwined bodies, reaching to the sky and growing off of one another while a central figure acts like the supporting trunk of a tree to its branches. The shapes are colorblocked and bold and gestural lines surround the genderless figure, indicating a movement about it. Two aspects of the work are particularly unique among the compositional style: the seemingly glowing holes in the conjoined figure and the cross-like formation that scopes the upper half of Growing 2. Haring’s activism ranged from nuclear warfare and apartheid to LGBTQ+ issues and the AIDS epidemic, but his works also highlighted institutional corruptions that at times created disunity and strayed from the value of equality.

The use of the hole through figures throughout his works, symbol Haring imagined upon hearing of John Lennon’s assassination in 1980, is said to be symbolic of a hole in the collective core of humanity, something missing in us all. Meanwhile, the positioning of the character reminiscent of a cross nods to Haring’s idea that many religious institutions have warped from their initial intentions. “The fundamentalist Christians, all dogmatic ‘control religions’, are evil. The original ideas are good. But they are so convoluted and changed that only a skeleton of good intentions are left…” Perhaps in Growing 2 Haring illustrates an emptiness left unfilled by dividing institutional doctrines. One that would better be mended with relationship, a common purpose, and a rejection of teachings that would alienate us from one another.