EVENT

Snap! Orlando 'You Are Here' presents: 'All About Warhol’ at Orlando Museum of Art on Saturday, May 9th, 5-7pm.

The ‘All About Warhol’ exhibition presents a comprehensive look at the highly personal work of photographers William John Kennedy, Christopher Makos and Paul Solberg - the collaboration of the latter two as The Hilton Brothers – and their relationship with Andy Warhol. Curated by Patrick & Holly Kahn (Snap! Orlando) and Louis Canales (KIWI Arts Group).

Even before Warhol could be labeled the consummate appropriation artist, William John Kennedy’s remarkable portraits of the artist were already documenting the process at a time prior to Pop Art becoming the new canon. Kennedy, by embedding Warhol in his own work in each of the intimate portraits he took of the artist, reveals a rare insightful glimpse of Warhol, that transcends the artist’s carefully crafted ‘persona’ with its deadpan blankness, sunglasses and obvious wig.

The image of Andy Warhol in Christopher Makos “Andy Dandy” is the result of a 1981 collaboration between the photographer and the artist called “Altered Image’ through which unexpected combinations of simple elements are used to explore Identity. Warhol slightly altered his appearance with make up and a wig, otherwise remaining in his street clothes. Warhol said, “I’m not trying to look beautiful like Elizabeth Taylor, I’m trying to show what it feels like to be beautiful like Elizabeth Taylor.”

The ‘All About Warhol’ exhibition also features portraits of Warhol Factory denizens and its visitors over the years including superstar Ultra Violet, Taylor Mead, Pedro Almodovar, Gerard Malanga, Man Ray, Tom Ford, Debbie Harry, Lou Reed, Steve Tyler, Georgia O’Keefe, Liza Minnelli, Christopher Reeve and OJ Simpson.

About the Artists:
William John Kennedy (Glenn Cove, NY 1930 - )
Fine art photographer, William John Kennedy forged a friendship with Andy Warhol in 1963 and proceeded to capture, through his lens, the artist and his soon-to-be iconic works at the seminal point of his career and the birth of the Pop Art Movement. After almost half a century in storage, a selection of the nearly forgotten images have been recently published for the first time and are now part of the permanent collection of the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Christopher Makos (Lowell, Mass 1949 - )
A well-known figure in the New York art scene of the 80’s, Christopher Makos apprenticed with photographer Man Ray in Paris and collaborated with Andy Warhol, whom he showed how to use his first camera. Warhol called Makos “ the most modern photographer in America.” His body of work has been exhibited in galleries and museums including the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Tate Modern in London, the Whitney Museum in New York, and the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid.

Paul Solberg (St. Paul, Minnesota 1969 - )
Paul Solberg is greatly admired for his exquisite still life portraits and the equal sensitivity which he instills in his human subjects. Solberg has exhibited his body of work internationally in museums and galleries including Madrid, Montevideo, Paris, Tokyo, LA, Macao, Shanghai, Sao Paulo, Berlin and NY. His most recent published books include ‘Tyrants + Lederhosen’ (2010), ‘Tattoos, Hornets & Fire’ (2012), and Food Trucks LA (2013).

The Hilton Brothers:
The Hilton Brothers, as an artistic identity, comes out of a series of collaborations Christopher Makos and Paul Solberg began over a decade ago. The idea of identity, who took which picture, and why was the difference discernable led them to begin a series of diptychs, where they would photograph separate objects and bring them together in one print: one plus one equals a third new artwork. So it seemed with their artistic identities, a blurring of individual egos to proceed to explore other collaborative projects. Makos and Solberg began calling their collective works, and themselves The Hilton Brothers.

Image: The Hilton Brothers, 'Andy Dandy Five.'
Courtesy: KIWI Arts Group.
On View through Sunday, June 21st.