The Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, OH will host the only U.S. installation of Andy Warhol’s “Cosmos” through more than 700 works. The exhibition, titled Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms will be available for public viewing Sept. 13, 2008 through January 4, 2009. Organized by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm—and curated by Eva Meyer-Hermann, an independent curator based in Cologne, Germany, this comprehensive display features paintings, films, drawings, wallpaper, installations, objects, and video displays, and will be accompanied by audio recordings including music from the Velvet Underground, launched from Warhol’s famous Factory studio.

The items displayed cover the years from 1949 through 1987, including samples from The Time Capsules and The Factory Diaries, which provide a penetrating look into Warhol’s life and vision, primarily during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. The installation also captures major political, cultural, and artistic figures of the time, such as John F. Kennedy, Jr., David Bowie, Lou Reed, and Truman Capote, who were a part of Warhol’s widely diverse social circle.

After visiting this exhibition in Amsterdam in late 2007, where it drew record crowds, Sherri Geldin, Director of the Wexner Center, set out to bring the exhibition to her own museum. She described her impression of the work featured: “It explores afresh the remarkable legacy of an artist who utterly transformed the cultural landscape of his own time, but also foretold with uncanny prescience today’s media-obsessed society.”

Andy Warhol, sometimes referred to as the ‘Pope of Pop,’ is without a doubt one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. He embraced pop art, fascinated with the commercialism of popular icons in media and in everyday life. Warhol helped to shape pop culture and foresaw our fascination with the media to the extreme extent to which it is now accessible. Claiming that each individual would have his or her ’15 minutes of fame,’ Warhol would certainly not be the least bit surprised by the popularity of such venues as You Tube, MP3 music downloads, American Idol, and weblogs.

A master and practitioner of multiple creative forms of expression, Warhol was a painter, writer, music producer, avant-garde filmmaker, magazine creator, sculptor, and photographer. Focusing on diverse and contrasting interests simultaneously, he was fascinated with all forms of media, a blurring of gender identities, and the contrast between a pervasive sense of celebrity and privacy.

In conjunction with the Other Voices, Other Rooms exhibition, the Wexner will also host an international symposium on Warhol’s work and influence, along with a wide array of educational programs.