Warhol Museum, Citizens partnership boosts public art, artist development

June 27 was a red-letter day for The Andy Warhol Museum, with the unveiling of a large-scale piece in its public art installation, The Pop District, and the announcement of a partnership with Citizens Financial Group Inc. in support of that initiative.

Pittsburgh artist Mikael Owunna’s “Anatomy of a Human” now looms above the Pop Park at the corner of Sandusky and East General Robinson streets on Pittsburgh’s North Side, across the street from the museum.

Citizens is sponsoring the yearlong installation of Owunna’s photographic piece printed on vinyl that drapes the side of a building abutting the park.

Its partnership with the museum also includes a $350,000 commitment to The Warhol Academy, which will support 28 fellowships for diverse, emerging artists working in digital content creation, film-making and post-production.

The partnership makes Citizens the largest corporate supporter of The Warhol Academy.

“As a queer artist born and raised in Pittsburgh, it is particularly moving for me to have the installation at the institution dedicated to preserving the legacy of a fellow queer Pittsburgh artist, Andy Warhol,” Owunna said at the unveiling. “I am inspired by his example of innovation, breaking boundaries, presenting new visions of the body and creating new visual languages.”

Based in Highland Park, Owunna has exhibited other large-scale stylized photographs around the city, including the 2021 works “Playing the Cosmic Strings,” on the exterior of Heinz Hall, and “Infinite Essence: Celestial Liberation,” on 11 digital billboards and kiosks.

Owunna’s work is in various museum collections and has been exhibited across Asia, Europe and North America. He is the president of the City of Pittsburgh’s Public Art and Civic Design Commission.

To create “Anatomy of a Human,” Owunna said he used a “highly technical” combination of painting, engineering, ultraviolet light and long-exposure photography.

“I began by building a camera flash that only transmits ultraviolet light,” he said.

For the photo shoot, Owunna hand-painted the body of local Black queer performer Joy-Marie Thompson with fluorescent paints that only glow under ultraviolet light.

“I clicked down on the camera shutter and, in total darkness with a timed long exposure set at synchronized intervals, I activated the ultraviolet flash,” he said. “With each flash, Joy’s body became illuminated as the universe as they gracefully moved around the set.

“My strategic use of long exposure captured all these illuminated moments into a single stop-motion portrait on my camera.”

The human soul

Prior to creating the work, Owunna studied Warhol’s use of multiple silk screens to create stop motion-style prints and photos. These visual collage techniques also appear in Warhol’s films, he noted.

“His techniques introduce movement into two-dimensional media and add dynamism and filmic effects to the works,” he said.

“Anatomy of a Human” depicts the human soul as described in West African Igbo spiritual science.

In the Igbo cosmological system, Owunna said, the soul comprises four spiritual elements, which he described thus: “Chi, the divine force, or god within; Eke, creative physical organic matter; Mmuo, our collection of memories, personality and desires; and Onyeuwa, the part of the soul that has a mission on earth.”

The installation was fabricated in conjunction with Flyspace Productions of Pittsburgh.

It “kick-starts what we think will be a really special relationship with The Warhol, the first of what we hope will be an annual event,” said Brendan Coughlin, Citizens vice chairman and head of consumer banking.

Investing in programs at The Warhol aligns with the financial institution’s mission of “helping our communities and customers reach their full potential,” Coughlin said.

“We’re not all that interested in engaging without real purpose and support of the community at large, and this is a tremendous example of that,” he said. “There’s something special going on in Pittsburgh. There’s a lot of growth, there’s a re-invigoration of this community, and we need to be a part of it.”

Announced in 2022, The Pop District is planned as a 10-year, $60 million development project that, in addition to public art and workforce development, will include a mid-sized music and event venue.

“We want to engage in an authentic way in the region and make sure that the city of Pittsburgh has a sustainable future, so what can we do?” said Dan Law, The Warhol’s associate director. “The first thing that came to mind was focusing on The Pop District and the strategic priorities of workforce development and public art.“