Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Slavs of New York: Andy Warhol's Nowhere (Extended Through April)

Andy Warhol photographed by Gretchen Berg, 1966. (Click on the image for a 300 DPI jpeg download for press reproduction. Drag the larger image to your desktop to download. Image copyright: Gretchen Berg, 2011.)

Curated by Cynthia von Buhler.
Millennium Gallery
66 East 4th Street, New York, NY
Opening March 16, 2011 from 6PM – 8PM (free and open to the public)

New York City, March 16 – April 30, 2011 --The Kinofest NYC Film Festival in cooperation with the Millennium Gallery present an exhibit of photographs titled “Slavs of New York: Andy Warhol's Nowhere” curated by Cynthia von Buhler. The exhibit features photographs of Andy Warhol taken by artists Anton Perich, Gretchen Berg, and Sebastian Piras, some of which include Warhol’s “superstars” and collaborators (Candy Darling, Taylor Mead, Vincent Fremont, and Fred Hughes) and celebrities (Genevieve Waite, Keith Richards, Bianna Jagger, and Sylvestor Stallone).

When asked where he was from, Warhol usually replied that he "was from nowhere." While he may have considered this true in his mind and heart, in fact his family came from Mikova, Slovakia.

Anton Perich, born in Croatia, was a contributing photographer for Andy Warhol's INTERVIEW Magazine in the early 1970's. A selection of his photographs are now in the collection of the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the Warhol Foundation, and the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation in New York.

Gretchen Berg, a New York City photographer and journalist, interviewed Warhol in 1966. The interview and photographs were published under the title of "Andy Warhol, My True Story." Berg’s photographs, original recordings, a vintage photocopy of the typescripts from this interview were acquired by The Andy Warhol Museum in 2007.

Sebastian Piras' work focuses primarily on photographic portraits of artists. He has photographed Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, and other artists. He directed and filmed the documentary “Taylor Mead Unleashed,” which also featured Allen Ginsberg and Quentin Crisp.

Also on display will be photos of notable Ukrainians by Kyle Cassidy (musician Vitalij Kuprij and former senator Walter Dudycz), Mikolaj Kirscke (actress Olga Kurylenko), Glenn Francis (actress Mila Kunis), Georges Baird (actress Milla Jovovich), Valeriy Davidenko (soccer player Andriy Shevchenko), Rhinowing (Gogol Bordello singer Eugene Hutz), David Shankbone (children's book author/illustrator James Warhola and actress Vera Famiga), and NASA (astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper).

The “Slavs of New York” exhibit and opening reception are presented as part of the Kinofest NYC Film Festival. Kicking off the festival week in conjunction with the exhibit opening, Kinofest NYC is screening I Am From Nowhere, a film by Georg Misch about the Warhol family home town, at 8 p.m. in the adjacent theater. Cynthia von Buhler will introduce the film. The admission to see the film is $10.

Cynthia von Buhler is an internationally exhibiting visual artist, author, and performer living in New York City. In 2007, on the twenty-year anniversary of Warhol's death, von Buhler curated the legendary exhibit entitled “Andy Warhol; In His Wake,” and created a work for it titled “The Great Warhola,” an interactive fortune-telling machine.

About Kinofest NYC Film Festival
Founded in 2009, Kinofest NYC is a festival committed to celebrating the art of independent cinema. Kinofest NYC seeks to educate and entertain its participants and to provide opportunities for its public to watch independent film from Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries. The festival also serves as a forum to introduce new filmmakers from these countries to American audiences and industry professionals.

Millennium Gallery is an experimental theater space that is partially funded by The Warhol Foundation. Gallery hours are Mon-Sat 7–10.30 p.m. and Sat 1–5 p.m. & by appointment.

Contact: Hannah Goldstein, hannah@drawbridge.com

Candy Darling and Andy Warhol photographed by Anton Perich, 1972. (Click on the image for a 300 DPI jpeg download for press reproduction. Drag the larger image to your desktop to download. Image copyright: Anton Perich, 2011.)