Born “Andrew Warhola” in 1928 to Slovak immigrants, Warhol displayed an early talent for drawing and painting. Following high school, he enrolled in Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Institute of Technology, where he studied commercial art. After graduating in 1949, Warhol moved to New York to work as an illustrator for various magazines. He soon became one of New York’s most sought after and successful illustrators and, in 1952, he held his first one-man exhibition at New York’s Hugo Gallery. Warhol quickly became one of the most celebrated commercial artists in the city; his works were featured in every important magazine from Vogue to Harper’s Bazaar.

Widely considered as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, Warhol is celebrated for his signature depictions surrounding daily objects of mass production. Identified as the first artist to convey the influence of mass media culture on the American life, Warhol created his most prolific works in the 1960s, when the US was quickly becoming a culture built upon television and mass consumerism. Consequently surrounded by a fascination with impactful and lasting images, audiences soon began to reject typical print media to embrace Warhol’s representation of media and commercialism. Throughout his successful career and numerous iconic collaborations, Andy Warhol continued to firmly establish his patented impact of imagery on the development of our environment and identity. His beloved Campbell’s Soup cans and Coke bottles, as well as his silkscreen prints of famous personalities such as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley are still widely celebrated today. Simply, Warhol is regarded as the King of Pop Art.