June 10, 2008

Uberstars at the Warhol Museum

Online is where stars are born these days, as evidenced at the "Uberstars" exhibit at the Andy Warhol Museum.
The show, put togther by blog overlord Glenn Kaino (founder of artsy social networking site Uber.com) aligns present-day cyber stars with Andy Warhol's original Superstars.
Like the Superstars (and New York's Club Kids), the Uberstars came seemingly from out of nowhere, some building enormous followings not necessarily by "doing", but just by "being".
In the exhibit, a Polaroid of nightcrawler and scruffball model Cory Kennedy (pictured, left) sits next to Warhol's photo of Brigid Berlin (!). Author, blog queen and fashion commentator Clint Catalyst (pictured, right) finds his likeness neighboring Mick Jagger's, as shot by Warhol. (No-one was deemed worthy of Edie, yet.)

All the Uberstar Polaroid shots were taken by Kaino with his Big Shot Polaroid camera (designed for portrait use only, these were originally released in 1971 and produced until 1973). Other Uberstars include artist Aaron Sandnes, pink-haired model Audrey Kitching, journalist and former Women's Wear Daily West Coast Editor Rose Apodaca, and "Project Runway" alum Rami Kashou.
“It’s remarkable to see the many close parallels between Warhol’s Superstars of the 1960s and 1970s and these glam-fab ‘kids’ of today,” says Thomas Sokolowski, director of

The Andy Warhol Museum. (Although we imagine there's slightly less drug use among the Uberstars.)
The show is part of the "Transformer: The Work of Glenn Kaino" exhibit, which features a number of Kaino's enormous, futuristic sculptures (pictured: "A Plank For Every Pirate", 16'x16'x14', wood, paint, plexiglas). A catalog with the same title as the exhibition will be published by German art publishing house Hatje Cantz later this year, featuring essays by David Levi Strauss, Larry List, Lauri Firstenberg, and Thomas Sokolowski.
The exhibit continues through the end of August at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburg. Visit www.warhol.org for more information.

June 10, 2008 in FAME | Permalink

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