Press Release Public Programs

For immediate release

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Exhibitions

Devan Shimoyama: Cry, Baby
October 13, 2018 – March 17, 2019

Devan Shimoyama: Cry, Baby will mark the first museum solo exhibition of Devan Shimoyama, Philadelphia-born painter and professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Spanning his burgeoning career, this exhibition includes painting, photography and sculpture, and a series of new works that will be on view for the first time. In figurative painting and self-portraiture, Shimoyama creates vulnerable yet resilient depictions of African American boyhood and masculinity. His work challenges cliché with daring and personal representations of the complexities of race and sexuality. In his recent barbershop paintings, Shimoyama transforms the hyper-masculine social space into queer fantasy where feminine glamour and fashion take over, and tender depictions of boys don floral capes and glitter-encrusted hair.

Shimoyama creates two distinct worlds—one an enchanted paradise, the other a queer imagining of the African American barbershop. Celebrated for fraternity and community, Shimoyama presents the barbershop as a space where young men and boys can feel shamed and vulnerable. In sculpture, he creates objects of mourning for Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice, both examples of the aggressive targeting of African American youth as fearful or threatening. While canvases feel joyful and celebratory, they also present commentary on pain and sorrow. Teardrops lurk in the background of his landscapes or stream down the faces of his figures as a reminder of the racial injustices at work in contemporary society. Shimoyama presents a world where race, sexuality, and identity can operate from a point of freedom generated by inner strength.

This exhibition makes a unique connection to The Andy Warhol Museum’s permanent collection and brings to light contemporary insight into one of Warhol’s largest and yet most overlooked painting commissions, the Ladies and Gentlemen series of 1974-75. Visitors will find Shimoyama’s work in dialog with Warhol’s portraits of drag queens on the fourth floor of the museum’s permanent collection. Shimoyama’s confident and daring depictions of sexuality, race and queer performance help reclaim the agency and visibility that Warhol’s models have been denied and bring these paintings out from the shadows.

Devan Shimoyama: Cry, Baby is curated by Jessica Beck, The Milton Fine Curator of Art at The Warhol.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with essays by Jessica Beck, Alex Fialho, and Rickey Laurentiis and interview by Emily Colucci with the artist.

Generous support of Devan Shimoyama: Cry, Baby is provided by the Quentin and Evelyn T. Cunningham Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation, The Fine Foundation, Arts, Equity, & Education Fund, Karen and Jim Johnson, De Buck Gallery, Jim Spencer and Michael Lin, with additional support from Stacy and Samuel Freeman, V. Joy Simmons M.D., Mrs. Ellen and Mr. Jack Kessler, The Plastino Family Charitable Fund, and Mr. Howard C. Eglit.

Programs

Miguel Gutierrez: SADONNA
Friday, September 28, 2018
8 p.m.
The Warhol theater

Co-presented with Carnegie Mellon University School of Art and School of Drama
SADONNA is exactly what it sounds like: sad versions of Madonna songs. In this music project, choreographer Miguel Gutierrez shows just how tiny the spiritual distance is between the international pop superstar, who grew up in Bay City, Michigan and himself, an international experimental itinerant artist who grew up in Colonia, New Jersey. Backed by the SLUTINOS, the Sad Latino Boys Backup Singers, SADONNA ekes out the melancholy cry for help hidden within Madonna’s uplifting lyrics.
Please note this performance contains adult subject matter and strong language.
Tickets $15/$12 members and students; Visit warhol.org or call 412-237-8300

RADical Day 2018, Featuring Free Admission
Saturday, September 29, 2018
10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Bring the whole family to The Warhol for a unique day of art and fun. While you’re here, visit The Factory underground to create your own work of art and don’t forget to make your own screen test to share with friends and family.

RADical Days is an annual event celebrating the region’s assets with free admission, musical and dance performances, and family activities offered by arts and culture organizations, parks and recreation, and sports and attractions that are funded by RAD.
Free

Dandy Andy: Warhol’s Queer History
Saturday, September 29, 2018
3 p.m.

Join artist educators for Dandy Andy, a monthly tour that focuses on Warhol’s queer history. While his sexuality is frequently suppressed or debated, Warhol was a gay man who had several partners throughout his life. Warhol’s boyfriends, including Edward Wallowitch, John Giorno, and Jed Johnson, were also his colleagues and collaborators, helping to shape and define his career as an artist. This tour traces Warhol’s romantic relationships and queer identity against the backdrop of the historical gay rights movement in the United States. Tours meet on the museum’s seventh floor.
Free with museum admission

Screening of George A. Romero’s Season of the Witch with filmmaker Peggy Ahwesh
Friday, October 5, 2018
6:30 p.m.
The Warhol theater

Co-presented with the University of Pittsburgh’s Humanities Center
In conjunction with the Romero Lives: Pittsburgh Celebrates George A. Romero city-wide tribute, The Warhol presents a screening of George A. Romero’s Season of the Witch. Billed as Romero’s “feminist film,” Season of the Witch stars Joan Mitchell as an unhappy, suburban housewife. Frustrated by her home life, with an uncommunicative businessman husband and a distant 19-year-old daughter, Joan seeks solace in witchcraft after visiting Marion Hamilton, a local tarot reader and leader of a secret black arts wicca set. After dabbling in witchcraft, Joan, believing herself to have become a real witch, withdraws into a fantasy world and sinks deeper and deeper into a new lifestyle where fantasy and reality are blurred. Eventually, tragedy results. Following the screening, filmmaker Peggy Ahwesh, (b. 1954), a prolific filmmaker and video artist based in New York, will discuss her practice and the influence and legacy of George A. Romero with the University of Pittsburgh’s Ben Ogrodnik. This event is organized by Jessica Beck, Adam Lowenstein and Ben Ogrodnik.
Free; Registration is required; Visit warhol.org

Sound Series: Essex Green with special guest The Garment District
Thursday, October 11, 2018
8 p.m.
The Warhol theater

Co-presented with WYEP
The Warhol welcomes Essex Green on a tour supporting their latest release, Hardly Electronic, on Merge Records. After a twelve-year break since their last album, Cannibal Sea, the band, comprised of Jeff Baron, Sasha Bell and Chris Ziter, return with their layered vocal harmonies, shimmering guitars and hook-laden organ melodies, culminating in a classic and catchy indie-folk/rock record that explores a range of sonic territory. The Pittsburgh indie pop ensemble, The Garment District, open the evening.
Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Free parking available in The Warhol lot.
Tickets $15/$12 members and students; Visit warhol.org or call 412-237-8300

2018 Teacher Open House
Thursday, October 25
4:30–8:30 p.m.

Our annual open house event just for teachers featuring food, drinks (cash bar), our latest exhibition, lectures, gallery talks, art making activities, discussions, and classroom resources. Teachers in attendance may receive Act 48 credit hours and information about school partnership opportunities. Sponsored by NOVA Chemicals.
Free parking available in The Warhol lot.
Tickets $10 (includes museum admission, studio materials, tour of exhibition, lite bites); Visit warhol.org

The Black Ecstatic: An Evening of Poetry & Film
Thursday, October 25, 2018
7 p.m.
Frick Fine Arts Building, Room 125 (Oakland)

Co-presented with Center for African American Poetry (CAAPP) at University of Pittsburgh
Three contemporary black poets, Airea D. Matthews, Roger Reeves, and Safiya Sinclair, and filmmaker Jamal T. Lewis will consider how “the ecstatic” functions in their artistic work and personal lives, within the context of the contemporary moment, where attention to black political and social life emphasizes death and unjustifiable violence. The program, which will include poetry performances, a brief film screening, and discussion, is organized and moderated by Rickey Laurentiis, the inaugural Fellow in Creative Writing at Center for African American Poetry and Poetics. This program is presented in conjunction with The Warhol’s Devan Shimoyama: Cry, Baby exhibition, curated by Jessica Beck, the Milton Fine curator of art at The Warhol.
Free; Registration is suggested; Visit warhol.org

Shop Talk: Kleaver Cruz and Devan Shimoyama discuss Black Joy, Masculinity, and Barbershops
Friday, October 26, 2018
7 p.m.
The Warhol theater

Co-presented with Center for African American Poetry (CAAPP) at University of Pittsburgh
Kleaver Cruz brings The Black Joy Project to Pittsburgh. For one week in October, Cruz will explore black spaces in Pittsburgh, take portraits, and conduct conversations regarding Black joy. As a culmination of his residency, he will speak with artist Devan Shimoyama and community members about navigating black barbershops and the complex experience of being queer in these spaces. The event will be followed by a late-night dance party in the museum entrance space with a local DJ and a live performance by Brooklyn born, Pittsburgh-based performer, Brendon Hawkins. This event is organized by Jessica Beck, the Milton Fine curator of art at The Warhol in collaboration with Rickey Laurentiis the inaugural Fellow in Creative Writing at the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics.
Free; Registration is suggested; Visit warhol.org

Dandy Andy: Warhol’s Queer History
Saturday, October 27, 2018
3 p.m.

Join artist educators for Dandy Andy, a monthly tour that focuses on Warhol’s queer history. While his sexuality is frequently suppressed or debated, Warhol was a gay man who had several partners throughout his life. Warhol’s boyfriends, including Edward Wallowitch, John Giorno, and Jed Johnson, were also his colleagues and collaborators, helping to shape and define his career as an artist. This tour traces Warhol’s romantic relationships and queer identity against the backdrop of the historical gay rights movement in the United States. Tours meet on the museum’s seventh floor.
Free with museum admission

Screening of The Chelsea Girls
Friday, November 9, 2018
7 p.m.
The Warhol theater

The Warhol presents Andy Warhol’s epic double-screen masterpiece The Chelsea Girls in a new digital film transfer. Each of the film’s segments are tableaux featuring beauty, sex, drugs, and danger that give viewers a genuine glimpse into Warhol’s 1960s underground world. The film screens in celebration of the new publication Andy Warhol’s The Chelsea Girls edited and with text by the museum’s film curators Geralyn Huxley and Greg Pierce.
Free; Registration is required; Visit warhol.org

Dandy Andy: Warhol’s Queer History
Saturday, November 24, 2018
3 p.m.

Join artist educators for Dandy Andy, a monthly tour that focuses on Warhol’s queer history. While his sexuality is frequently suppressed or debated, Warhol was a gay man who had several partners throughout his life. Warhol’s boyfriends, including Edward Wallowitch, John Giorno, and Jed Johnson, were also his colleagues and collaborators, helping to shape and define his career as an artist. This tour traces Warhol’s romantic relationships and queer identity against the backdrop of the historical gay rights movement in the United States. Tours meet on the museum’s seventh floor.
Free with museum admission

Art in Context: Visibility and Erasure
Friday, November 30, 2018
7 p.m.

In 1974 Andy Warhol completed his most lucrative commission—Ladies and Gentlemen, a series of over 200 striking portraits of African American and Latina drag queens and trans women. The subjects received just $50 to sit for Polaroids in Warhol’s studio, and they were not named when the work debuted in Italy in 1975. Now over 40 years later researchers at The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts have successfully identified all of Warhol’s subjects in the series, including iconic transgender performer and activist, Marsha ‘Pay it No Mind’ Johnson.

Join us for the Pittsburgh premiere of Happy Birthday, Marsha! followed by a discussion about visibility, representation, and authorship with filmmakers Tourmaline and Sasha Wortzel, moderated by local advocate Ciora Thomas. Happy Birthday, Marsha! imagines iconic transgender performer and activist, Marsha ‘Pay it No Mind’ Johnson in the hours before the 1969 anti-policing riots at the Stonewall Inn in New York City. Starring Independent Spirit Award Winner Mya Taylor with cinematography by Arthur Jafa, Happy Birthday, Marsha! blends documentary storytelling with historical fiction to counter the endemic erasure of trans women of color from narratives of political resistance.
Free; registration is required; Visit warhol.org

Sensory-Friendly Event for Teens and Young Adults: Portraiture
Saturday, December 1, 2018
9–10:30 a.m.

This inclusive 90-minute workshop for teens and young adults (ages 13–21) focuses on the role of portraiture in Warhol’s artistic practice. We will also connect Warhol’s work with our exhibition, Devan Shimoyama’s Cry, Baby and create our own pop portraits. Attendance is limited to 20 people. Materials and an orientation video will be supplied prior to the event and participants will have the chance to discuss any other accommodations needed.
Free; registration is required; Visit warhol.org

A John Waters’ Christmas: Holier & Dirtier
Saturday, December 8, 2018
8 p.m.
Carnegie Lecture Hall (Oakland)

Co-presented with Carnegie Museum of Art
The Warhol welcomes back by popular demand, the legendary writer and director, John Waters, (Pink Flamingos, Hairspray, Cry Baby), to the intimate Carnegie Lecture Hall with his critically acclaimed one-man show, “A John Waters Christmas”. Torn between capitalism and anarchy, Waters offers his hilariously incisive take on “Christmas crazy,” spreading his subversive yuletide cheer and lunacy while posing provocative holiday questions, such as “Is Prancer the only gay reindeer?” and “Should you disrupt living crèche celebrations this year in the name of political action?”
Please note this performance contains adult subject matter and strong language.
VIP tickets include general admission seating and post-show meet and greet.
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets $30/$25 members and students; $125 VIP; Visit warhol.org or call 412-237-8300

Half-Pint Prints
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
10 a.m.–12 p.m.
The Factory

Families work with The Warhol’s artist educators to create silkscreen prints during this drop-in silkscreen printing activity for children ages 1 to 4 years old.
Free with museum admission; Registration is required; Visit warhol.org

Rashaad Newsome: Shade Compositions
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
8 p.m.
Carnegie Music Hall (Oakland)

Co-presented with PearlArts Studios
Rashaad Newsome, renowned New York based artist, will make his Pittsburgh debut of Shade Compositions, an ongoing performance project that launched in 2005. Throughout the Fall of 2018, Newsome will be working in Pittsburgh, casting local performers, and staging rehearsals for Shade Compositions, the artist’s critically acclaimed performance. In this performance, Newsome is both conductor, composer and vocal choreographer. Leading an ensemble of locally cast self-identifying black female and femme performers, whose individual voices and gestures are synthesized to form improvisatory orchestral music. Newsome explores the complexities of social power structures and questions of agency.

During the performance, Newsome collages video and audio using hacked video game controllers. For over a decade Newsome has engaged in casual, but extensive ethnographic and linguistic research into global iterations of “Black Vernacular”—a variety of English natively spoken by most working and middle-class African Americans, particularly in urban communities. Through his visually engaging and dynamic style of live performance and video, Newsome explores the complexities of social power structures and questions of agency.

This event is organized by Jessica Beck, the Milton Fine Curator of Art at The Andy Warhol Museum in conjunction with the exhibition Devan Shimoyama: Cry, Baby.
Free; Registration is suggested; Visit warhol.org

Dandy Andy: Warhol’s Queer History
Saturday, December 29, 2018
3 p.m.

Join artist educators for Dandy Andy, a monthly tour that focuses on Warhol’s queer history. While his sexuality is frequently suppressed or debated, Warhol was a gay man who had several partners throughout his life. Warhol’s boyfriends, including Edward Wallowitch, John Giorno, and Jed Johnson, were also his colleagues and collaborators, helping to shape and define his career as an artist. This tour traces Warhol’s romantic relationships and queer identity against the backdrop of the historical gay rights movement in the United States. Tours meet on the museum’s seventh floor.
Free with museum admission

Half-Pint Prints
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
10 a.m.–12 p.m.
The Factory

Families work with The Warhol’s artist educators to create silkscreen prints during this drop-in silkscreen printing activity for children ages 1 to 4 years old.
Free with museum admission; Registration is required; Visit warhol.org

The Artist Up Close: Devan Shimoyama
Thursday, March 14, 2019
7 p.m.
The Warhol theater

Catalogue contributors, Jessica Beck, Emily Colucci, Alex Fialho, and Rickey Laurentiis, talk with Devan Shimoyama about his work and practice. This event serves as a closing dialogue for the exhibition, Devan Shimoyama: Cry, Baby, and offers a chance for the community to respond and meet the artist. Shimoyama and authors will be available to sign copies of the exhibition catalogue, which will be for sale in The Warhol Store.
Free; Registration is suggested; Visit warhol.org

The Warhol receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; and The Heinz Endowments. Further support is provided by the Allegheny Regional Asset District.

The Andy Warhol Museum

Located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the place of Andy Warhol’s birth, The Andy Warhol Museum holds the largest collection of Warhol’s artworks and archival materials and is one of the most comprehensive single-artist museums in the world. The Warhol is one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.

Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh

Established in 1895 by Andrew Carnegie, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh is a collection of four distinctive museums: Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Science Center, and The Andy Warhol Museum. The museums reach more than 1.4 million people a year through exhibitions, educational programs, outreach activities, and special events.

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