Exposures: Daniel Pillas: Andy Warhola’s Living Room

The first iteration of the Exposures series features work by Daniel Pillis, a Pittsburgh-based artist pursuing a master’s degree in fine arts from Carnegie Mellon University. Taking his inspiration from Warhol’s 1948 painting Living Room, Pillis creates a three-dimensional display of the Warhola family living room from their home on Dawson Street in Pittsburgh.

The series title Exposures refers to artists given the chance to showcase their work in a broad, public arena—The Warhol Store and its street-facing windows. The Warhol Store gives exposure to artists—both local and international—selling limited edition works, and the museum showcases young, emerging artists in a way similar to how a young Andy Warhol launched his career.

Honoring Warhol’s early career as a window dresser in Pittsburgh at Horne’s Department Store and in New York City at Bonwit Teller, the window displays are designed by local masters of fine arts students or recent graduates. In the 1950s, window dressing had become a rite of passage for artists in New York City; painters Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns also designed props and displays for commercial stores. For his 1961 Bonwit Teller windows, Warhol used five of his paintings based on comics—Superman, Little King, Saturday’s Popeye, Advertisement,  and Before and After (1)—as backdrops for mannequins dressed in spring dresses.

Exposures is curated by Jessica Beck, associate curator of art.