The Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh has named Eric C. Shiner (previously, A.i.A.’s Roving Eye) the new director of the Warhol Museum. Shiner has served as the museum’s acting director since January following the departure of Tom Sokolowski, who had spent 14 years at the Warhol’s helm.
In a press release, President and CEO of Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, John Wetenhall, described Shiner as “at once scholarly and refined, yet populist and welcoming—not unlike the dichotomous art of Andy Warhol himself.” The world’s largest museum dedicated to one artist, the Warhol Museum’s mission is to engage and promote the legacy of the artist and posirively impact the Pittsburgh community.
A Pennsylvania native, Shiner’s involvement with the Warhol Museum actually dates back to 1994, when he interned for the newly opened museum during his senior year at the University of Pittsburgh. After a stint in Japan as a curator and grad student, Shiner attended Yale and worked for some years as an independent curator in New York, including 2007’s “Making a Home: Japanese Contemporary Artists” in New York at Japan Society.
Shiner returned home to Pittsburgh in 2008, when he was appointed the Milton Fine Curator of Art at the Warhol Museum. In that role, Shiner has launched over 10 exhibitions, including “The End: Analyzing Art in Troubled Times,” a group show and response to the economic crisis of 2008, and Maimed in Mexico featuring the photos of Enrique Metinides.
