Displaying items by tag: eric shiner

The Andy Warhol Museum has dropped plans to build a 10,000-square-foot branch in New York City.

Eric Shiner, director of The Warhol, said in a statement Friday night that “The Andy Warhol Museum, which had been exploring its participation in the Essex Crossing development in lower Manhattan, has determined that it will not proceed with the project. Despite the efforts of both the museum and the developers, an internal study of business and other operational considerations led the museum to this decision.

“The Warhol will continue to participate in programs, exhibitions, and special projects in New York City through its longstanding collaborations with a variety of New York-based arts organizations.”

To commemorate its 20th anniversary, The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has reinstalled its permanent collection. This is the first time the institution has reimagined its holdings since it opened to the public in 1994. The Warhol’s collection, which includes paintings, photographs, sculptures, prints, and films by the Pop artist, has been hung chronologically across five of the museum’s seven floors. Well-known masterpieces will appear alongside rarely seen artworks and archival material when the galleries open to the public during a gala event on May 17.   

Eric Shiner, director of The Warhol, said, “We can’t wait to share the new look and feel of The Warhol with our visitors. Our goal is to both engage and educate our guests so that everyone leaves with a true understanding of who Andy was and why he matters so much. To keep the content fresh, the curatorial team will rotate artworks in all galleries on a frequent basis. It will be a fun experience and definitely worth a visit if you haven’t been to the museum in a while.”

The museum’s seventh floor will present artworks and objects that explore Warhol’s relationship with his hometown of Pittsburgh. Works on view include newly uncovered material relating to Warhol’s childhood and pieces from his family’s collection of rare paintings and photographs.

The gala in May will kick-off a year-long celebration at the museum, which is the most comprehensive single-artist museum in the world.

The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh recently finished an extensive renovation of its first floor. Updates include a multimedia event space, contemporary lounge area and a significantly increased retail space for The Warhol Store. The museum also added new windows, which bathe the updated area in natural light, new audio-visual equipment, an iPad bar, and a live EarthCam feed from Warhol’s gravesite. A floor to ceiling enlargement of William John Kennedy’s Homage to Warhol’s Marilyn (1964) courtesy of KIWI Arts Group, a Miami-based art publishing house, adorns the space.

The Warhol Museum’s Director, Eric Shiner, said, “We have always wanted to make The Warhol more welcoming for our visitors and community members. Through the generous support of several local foundations we have finally been able to rethink the museum’s first floor as a social hub in line with Andy Warhol’s famous Silver Factory. The Factory was a space where high and low, rich and poor, black and white, gay and straight came together as one. The Factory epitomized free thought and engaged discourse throughout the 1960s. We hope to replicate this model, welcoming all to come in, sit down, and share ideas without having to pay museum admission.”

The Eden Hall Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, The Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and anonymous donors funded the renovation, which was designed by Pittsburgh-based Desmone & Associates Architects.

To commemorate Pop artist Andy Warhol’s would-be 85^th birthday, the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh has teamed up with the video network EarthCam to stream live video feed from the artist’s grave. Warhol, who died in 1987 from complications stemming from a routine gallbladder surgery, would have been 85 on August 6, 2013.

The project, “Figment,” will be on view indefinitely and aims to connect Warhol to the museum’s global audience. The project’s title was pulled from a comment by Warhol:

“I never understood why when you died, you didn’t just vanish, and everything could just keep going on the way it was only you just wouldn’t be there. I always thought I’d like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph and no name. Well, actually, I’d like it to say ‘figment.’”

Warhol’s tombstone, which is located in a Roman Catholic cemetery outside Pittsburgh, his hometown, is engraved with his name, the dates of his birth and death, and a cross. Warhol’s grave attracts many of the artist’s fans and the live feed shows his resting place adorned with flowers and balloons.

Eric Shiner, the director of the Andy Warhol Museum, told the Associated Press, “We believe that this will give Warhol the pleasure of knowing that he is still plugged in and turned on over 25 years after his death.”

In an attempt to attract visitors from outside the region, a number of Pittsburgh institutions have embarked on a joint endeavor called the Pittsburgh Art and Architecture Tour. The Andy Warhol Museum, the Mattress Factory Art Museum and two seminal residences designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Fallingwater and Kentucky Knob, make up the tour.

The arrangement was made possible by a planning grant from the Pittsburgh-based Benter Foundation, an organization aimed at making the city more culturally and socially vibrant. The Warhol Museum’s Director, Eric Shiner, said, “We are very excited about this collaborative effort to increase cultural tourism to the Pittsburgh region.”

The Pittsburgh Art and Architecture Tour’s website, www.pghtrip.org, offers sample itineraries by car, air and public transportation that include the best places to stay, eat and visit while in the area.

100 years after the 1913 Armory Show changed the landscape of American art forever, the current incarnation of the event opened to the public today, March 7, 2013. Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a press conference to inaugurate the 2013 Armory Show, which features 214 exhibitors from across the globe. The event is expected to draw about 66,000 visitors and will generate approximately $54 million in the city during its four-day run.

This year’s Armory Show features a specially curated section titled ‘Armory Focus: USA’ and aims to celebrate the remarkable impact the 1913 Armory Show had on the country. The section is curated by Eric Shiner, the director of The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA and features 17 established and emerging galleries that focus on contemporary art.

The Armory Show is held on Piers 92 and 94 in central Manhattan and is part of the highly anticipated Armory Arts Week, a suite of cultural events and exhibitions taking place across the city from March 7-10, 2013.