Andy Warhol Museum Exhibits
June 2019 - November 2024
Andy Warhol’s Social Network
Fall 2022
The Warhol Museum’s 2022 Fall Exhibit, Andy Warhol’s Social Network, featured a large number of Interview magazine covers.
Xiaoxi Chen (https://xiaoxi.space/) created the design for the space, and the fabrication team at the Warhol built the casework. I crafted the label rails, rear support rails and the vertical supports that hold up the vitrines. Other Art Preparators and contractors created the casework offsite.
It was critical for us to coordinate so that the final install could come together without issue. As the designs were adjusted for ease of fabrication, I kept an updated 3D model and provided sample lengths of rail so that fitment could be repeatedly tested as needed.
My working drawings for the fabrication of these cases are pictured below including layout for efficient cutting of sheet goods (Critical for building an accurate BOM)
Paola Pivi: I want it All
Spring 2022
The Warhol Museum’s 2022 Spring Exhibit, Paola Pivi’s ‘I want It All’, was adorned with overwhelming multiples, bright colors and works hanging from the ceilings.
For this exhibit the large hanging mattresses would be interacted with by the visiting public so the solution to hang them needed to be particularly robust.
The staff at the museum worked closely with Paola Pivi’s team and the artist herself to realize these works. Responsibilities were broken up among preperators. I focused primarily on suspended works. While my colleagues tackled the hundreds of shoes that adorned the walls.
Hardware Proposal for Mattress Hanging (Submitted to an engineering firm for review)
Initial rigging proposal (later modified) intended to prevent mattresses from swaying or becoming a pendulum while hanging. Mattresses were not yet fabricated when these drafts were first created
Lighting Fixture Lens Storage
Fall 2019
Daily tasks at the Warhol Museum included managing and maintaining the track lighting system in the gallery and exhibition spaces. This could be anything from changing bulbs to ensuring light level adherence within conservation guidelines. When new exhibits were installed or works were rotated out light fixtures would regularly need new bulbs or new lenses. Early in my time at the museum I proposed and then fabricated a storage system that would better protect the fragile glass lenses that were required by the existing track lighting system.
Artwork Conservation ‘Bridge’
Winter 2022
Warhol’s largest works could span up to 30 foot in length and were often stored un-stretched and rolled up on large tubes. When these works needed regular analysis or conservation treatments preformed on them it could be difficult to find space in the museum to preform that work. Stretching a painting that large could take many hours and require a half dozen members of the exhibitions and conservation staff.
In order to allow for more independence while working on large paintings the conservator at the Andy Warhol Museum Rikke Foulke asked me about the possibility of constructing a device to help her access the hard to reach portions of the larger paintings.
Because a large exhibit had recently been de-installed we had a large supply of irregularly shaped plywood that allowed me to build this mobile truss-bridge span on a very tight budget. It became a valuable tool of the conservation department.
