Press Release Upcoming Public Programs at The Andy Warhol Museum

Andy Warhol, Snowflake (detail), ca. 1950s, © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

For immediate release

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

EXHIBITIONS

Warhol By the Book
Through January 10, 2016
Andy Warhol’s work in the medium of books provides a surprising look into the artist’s creativity and his ideas about art. This exhibition presents Warhol’s book work, from early student-work illustrations of the late 1940s, through to his careers as a commercial artist in the 1950s, Pop artist and underground filmmaker in the 1960s, and photographer and Pop culture icon of the 1970s–80s. Warhol constantly experimented in his work, and this freedom is also evident in his books, which often defy and question the common notion of what a book can be. While he authored many books (in collaboration with his assistants), these efforts are often overlooked, though they provide a valuable window into Warhol’s creative interests. This exhibition provides a nearly complete overview of Warhol’s work on books, including unfinished projects, original drawings, manuscripts, paintings, prints, photographs, artist’s books, and other materials that reveal his processes in their creation. This exhibition is supported in part by Affirmation Arts Fund.

Yevgeniy Fiks: Andy Warhol and The Pittsburgh Labor Files
Through January 10, 2016
This installation is a collection of documents that afford various impressions of the left-wing political, economic, and artistic life in Pittsburgh, from the communist movements of the 1920s, to the union rallies of the 1930s, to the Red Scare of the 1950s. Installed as several boxes filled with archives collected by U.S.-based, Russian artist Yevgeniy Fiks, it comprises dozens of photographs, printouts, PDF files, and books, including a government’s report on communist activities in Pittsburgh, images of artworks by Andy Warhol’s art professors at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University), and first-person accounts of race and labor relations.

Andy’s Toybox
Through February 14, 2016
Andy’s Toybox is a playful installation of the artist’s paintings, prints, and photographs from the late 1970s and 1980s, inspired by a series of paintings the artist created for children in 1983 for art dealer Bruno Bischofberger’s Zurich, Switzerland, gallery. Warhol made a group of small-scale works of monkeys, parrots, dogs, circus clowns, and fish, and the works were installed at child-height against a background of Warhol-designed Fish wallpaper. The present exhibition includes is a reinstallation of the Toy paintings and wallpaper from the original installation in Zurich, as well as the artist’s collection of vintage wind-up mechanical toys used as source material for the paintings. In this interactive exhibition for children of all ages, visitors are able to dress-up and pose for photographs, build their own castles, race toy cars, and play with toys from the museum’s own toy box.

Michael Chow aka Zhou Yinghua: Voice for My Father
February 13 – May 8, 2016
Michael Chow aka Zhou Yinghua: Voice for My Father, first exhibited at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, China, is Michael Chow’s first solo exhibition in the U.S. The exhibition features three main bodies of work, which include new paintings completed expressly for The Warhol show, vintage photographs of the artist’s father Zhou Xinfang—a grand master of the Beijing Opera—and a collection of portraits of Chow painted by his contemporaries, such as Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Ed Ruscha. Chow was born in Shanghai in 1939, and he now resides in California. Chow studied painting at the Saint Martin’s School of Art and then at the Hammersmith School of Building and Architecture, both in London, before changing course and opening his first restaurant MR CHOW in 1968, which became an international success, spawning locations around the globe. MR CHOW operates in seven locations around the world and has become synonymous with high-end Chinese cuisine and the diverse set of artists and luminaries for whom the restaurant was (and remains) a social hub. Now after nearly 50 years, he has returned to his first passion and paints almost daily. This exhibition is sponsored by U.S. Trust.

Exposures: Jamie Earnest: Private Spaces / Public Personas
February 17 – May 1, 2016
The 2016 season of Exposures launches with the work of Jamie Earnest, senior BFA student at Carnegie Mellon University. Earnest’s installation Private Spaces / Public Personas coincides with the temporary exhibition Michael Chow aka Zhou Yinghua: Voice For My Father, Michael Chow’s first solo exhibition in the U.S., and it is on view in The Warhol Store’s street-facing windows. For this series Earnest creates three new large-scale paintings that incorporate details from the private, residential spaces of both Andy Warhol and Chow. Mined from the Sotheby’s catalogues of Warhol’s estate sale, Earnest incorporates objects and other interior details from Warhol’s private townhouse. Famous for his collection of cookie jars, Warhol was also an avid collector of American decorative art and paintings from his contemporaries like Basquiat and Lichtenstein. Bringing these objects in dialogue with details from Chow’s home in Los Angeles, sourced from press articles online, Earnest’s paintings present abstracted views of the private dwellings of these two famous personas.

Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei
June 4 – August 28, 2016
A major international exhibition featuring two significant artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries—Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei—opens at The Warhol in June 2016. It first opened at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Melbourne, Australia, in December 2015. Andy Warhol / Ai Weiwei, developed by the NGV and The Warhol, with the participation of Ai Weiwei, explores the significant influence of these two artists on modern and contemporary life, focusing on the parallels, intersections, and points of difference between their practices—Warhol representing twentieth-century modernity and the “American century,” and Weiwei representing life in the twenty-first century and what has been called the “Chinese century” to come.

EVENTS

Special Holiday Hours Monday, December 28, 2015

10 a.m.–5 p.m.

The Warhol will be open on Monday, December 28, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. General museum admission

Free Good Fridays Presented by UPMC Health Plan
January 8, 15, 22, 29, 2016
5–10 p.m.
The Warhol offers free museum admission, a cash bar, and Pittsburgh’s DJ Huck Finn in the museum’s entrance space. Presented by UPMC Health Plan.

FREE

Sound Series: GABI with special guest Sleep Experiments Friday, January 15, 2016
8 p.m.
The Warhol theater

The Warhol welcomes adventurous vocalist and composer GABI (aka Gabrielle Herbst), to its intimate theater for an evening of ethereal, ambient, and otherworldly sounds. Herbst studied voice and composition with Zeena Parkins and Marina Rosenfeld, and her work has already been showcased at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, as well as Roulette, which in 2014 commissioned and premiered her first opera Bodiless. She is on tour supporting her debut album Sympathy, which was produced by Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never), and Paul Corley (Tim Hecker, Ben Frost). Pittsburgh’s own atmospheric, dream-pop trio Sleep Experiments opens the show. Tickets $15 / $12 members & students; visit www.warhol.org or call 412.237.8300.

Pop Generation
Thursday, January 28, 2016
11 a.m.
For the generation that inspired Warhol, Pop Generation, which features educational tours and complimentary refreshments, is exclusively for older adults, age 65 and over. Tickets $10 / free for members.

Sound Series: Ekmeles Saturday, January 30, 2016

8 p.m.
The Warhol entrance space
The Warhol and Music on the Edge welcome the innovative vocal ensemble Ekmeles, which is dedicated to the performance of new and rarely heard works and gems of the historical avant-garde. New York is home to a vibrant instrumental new music scene, with a relative paucity of vocal music. Ekmeles was founded to fill the gap by presenting a new a cappella repertoire for solo voices and by collaborating with these instrumental ensembles. It will be performing music by Elliott Carter, Jeffrey Gavett, Peter Ablinger, and more. The event is co-presented with the Music on the Edge series of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Music. Free parking is available in The Warhol lot. Advance tickets $15 / $10 students; door tickets $20 / $15 students; visit www.music.pitt.edu/tickets or call 412.624.7529.

Sound Series: The Red Western Saturday, February 6, 2016
8 p.m.
The Warhol entrance space

The Warhol welcomes Pittsburgh’s own The Red Western for a special record release show. The current band features Jay Leon, Jonathan Gunnell, Lauren DeLorenze, and Sean Finn, who are members of several current and former Pittsburgh bands including Satin Gum, Life In Bed, My Sexiest Mistake, and Derek White and the Monophobics. On its forthcoming album, the band blends folk, alternative country, and soul influences with sonic elements of indie rock, punk, and power pop. Free parking is available in The Warhol lot. Tickets $10 / $8 members & students; visit www.warhol.org or call 412.237.8300.

Exposures: Artist Talk
Saturday, February 20, 2016
2 p.m.
The Warhol theater
Exposures artists Elizabeth Rudnick and Jamie Earnest discuss their installations at The Warhol and their artistic practices with Jessica Beck, The Warhol’s assistant curator of art. Both Earnest and Rudnick studied at Carnegie Mellon University, and both share an interest in abstraction. The artists talk about their materials, approaches, and future projects as well as what it means to be an emerging artist in Pittsburgh today. Earnest’s Exposures installation Private Spaces / Public Personas is on view in The Warhol Store’s front-facing through May 1, 2016.

FREE

Sound Series: Disappears
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
8 p.m.
The Warhol theater
The Warhol welcomes the Chicago-based band Disappears for a special two-set evening. The first set features new and unreleased material, and in the second set the band performs David Bowie’s 1977 album Low, which was recorded live at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in fall 2014 in conjunction with the museum’s blockbuster David Bowie Is exhibition. The record was mastered by Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3), and it will be released on Sonic Cathedral November 20, 2015. The band features Pittsburgh-native Noah Leger (formerly of the Karl Hendricks Trio), who replaced Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth) on drums. Free parking is available in The Warhol lot. Tickets $15 / $12 members & students; visit www.warhol.org or call 412.237.8300.

Sound Series: George Lewis
Saturday, February 27, 2016
8 p.m.
The Warhol entrance space
The Warhol and Music on the Edge welcome famed composer/trombonist George Lewis. Winner of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, Lewis is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), and he has been widely recognized for his work in electronic music and computer-based multimedia installations. Lewis performs his highly regarded chamber compositions as part of the University of Pittsburgh’s Year of the Humanities. The event is co-presented with the Music on the Edge series and Pitt Jazz Studies of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Music. Free parking is available in The Warhol lot. Advance tickets $15 / $10 students; door tickets $20 / $15 students; visit www.music.pitt.edu/tickets or call 412.624.7529.

Sound Series: New Morse Code and Jamie Jordan Saturday, March 5, 2016
8 p.m.
The Warhol theater

The cello/percussion duo New Morse Code (Hannah Collins and Michael Compitello), shares a program with dynamic vocalist Jamie Jordan for an evening of acoustic and electronic works. The duo activates the unexpected range and unique sonic world of cello and percussion to catalyze and champion the compelling works of young composers. It will present new collaborative works on the Pittsburgh concert. The event is co-presented with the Music on the Edge series of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Music. Free parking is available in the Warhol lot. Advance tickets $15 / $10 students; door tickets $20 / $15 students; visit www.music.pitt.edu/tickets or call 412.624.7529.

Sound Series: Bedroom Community 10 Year Anniversary: Whale Watching Tour 2016
Thursday, March 31, 2016
8 p.m.

Carnegie Lecture Hall (Oakland)

The Warhol and Music on the Edge welcome artists from the adventurous and eclectic Bedroom Community record label to the Carnegie Lecture Hall in Oakland for its 2016 Whale Watching tour. Founded in 2006 in Reykjavík, Iceland, a diverse array of artists from around the globe have converged at Greenhouse Studios, where most of the music is recorded. The event is co-presented with the Music on the Edge series of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Music. Tickets $20 / $15 members & students; visit www.warhol.org or call 412.237.8300.

ONGOING PROGRAMS

GOOD FRIDAYS
Every Friday, 5–10 p.m.
For a more social experience, the museum is open late with a cash bar in the entrance gallery and half-price general museum admission. Many Good Fridays also feature special programs including music, performances, and more. Be sure to check our online calendar for specific weekly special programming (additional ticket pricing may apply).

Half-price general museum admission

The Factory (Underground Studio)
Tuesday–Friday, 1:30–5 p.m.; Saturday–Sunday, 12–5 p.m.
Visitors to our underground studio The Factory are encouraged to try out some of Warhol’s signature art-making techniques like blotted line drawing, acetate collage, and silkscreen printing.
Free with museum admission

Daily Gallery Talks

Experience tours and discussions on a wide range of topics including Warhol’s work practices, his life, and more. The 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. gallery talks are led by either Donald Warhola, artist educators, collections staff, or curatorial staff. The 1 p.m. talks are silkscreen demonstrations led by artist educators. These 30 minute talks include time for visitors to present their own insights and ask questions.

Free with museum admission


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.