INDIANAPOLIS — Beginning Friday, Aug. 6, the Long-Sharp gallery inside the Conrad Hotel in downtown Indianapolis will feature dozens of artwork by Andy Warhol that has never been seen by the public.
The exhibit opens on what would have been the artist's 93rd birthday.
"I hope that people will come in because of the name, but I hope they will stay because of what we're trying to do, provide an education about him, things they might not know," said the gallery's owner Rhonda Long-Sharp. "People know his portraits of Marilyn Monroe, but they might not know this side of him, and we're trying to expand on education about him."
The Warhol artwork features drawings from the 1950s and photographs he took, mostly of celebrities, in the '70s and '80s.
"He's with all of these people, and he's not so much interacting, he's recording," said Long-Sharp, a fan of Warhol's work since the '80s.
The pieces are for sale, but there's no price tag on the work. Long-Sharp said selling the artwork wasn't her mission.
"It was my choice to put this exhibit up, to put this exhibit up on his birthday, to put it up in this city. Bring us some street cred, I guess, a little street cred," Long-Sharp said. "There's all kinds of fabulous things going on, even on the night this exhibit opens. There's lots of art things going on, and we wanted to contribute to that."