Pittsburgh artists become roadside attractions in Warhol Museum campaign
Imagine driving down Boulevard of the Allies, looking up at the billboards, and, instead of passing the expected law firm advertisement, you see an oversized photograph of a familiar-looking energetic person with colorful clothing. Sure enough, the billboard confirms this is fashion designer Anika Ignozzi whose Millvale storefront you used to frequent. To the left of Anika on this billboard is an even better known name: Warhol.
This is the third year The Andy Warhol Museum is running its “Join the Family” brand campaign. The goal each year is to feature four creatives who have been strongly involved in Pittsburgh’s artistic community, according to Rick Armstrong, the museum’s Director of Marketing and Communications.
In addition to Ignozzi, the individuals featured in this year’s print ads and billboards, which were created in partnership with creative agency Barkley, are Pittsburgh-based cake decorator Josué Luciano, performance artist Caroline Yoo, and interdisciplinary artist Alisha B Wormsley.
“There's just something magical that happens in that studio that day with these people,” Armstrong says of the filming and photoshoot sessions with this year’s featured artists. “I'm always so surprised by what people say when they react.”
Each promotion features a photograph of the artist paired with a large descriptive word in all capital letters, including the word "fearless" in the ads featuring Wormsley, who is widely known for her own billboard art campaign There Are Black People In The Future.
The Warhol billboard featuring Ignozzi, paired with the word “rebellious,” is the one that first caught my attention, so I reached out to Anika to learn about her experience collaborating with The Warhol.
“I must be making some movements to get contacted by them,” Ignozzi says. “It encouraged me to keep going.”
Ignozzi founded the successful fashion brand Ooh Baby that started in Pittsburgh and is now continuing in New York City. She started creating upcycled clothing in 2018 by using spray paint, patches, and other funky and colorful techniques to add character to each piece. Originally selling her work in a pop-up stand in the Strip District, she later moved her business to a storefront on Grant Avenue in Millvale in September 2020, and now has a storefront on Greenwich Avenue in New York City.
“I wanna be a household name," says Ignozzi. “I wanna go the whole way with this.” And she is well on her way to her goal.
Ooh Baby has participated in Pittsburgh Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week, and is now in the midst of launching her brand’s first upscaled manufactured collection: Imagination Activation. Along with this new colorful collection, Ooh Baby is also launching a project of upcycling 400 pairs of Levi jeans, sewn and printed in their Greenwich studio.
In Pittsburgh, the new Ooh Baby collections can also be found at Boheme Pittsburgh on Butler Street in Lawrenceville.
It was really great to see how The Warhol’s “Join the Family” campaign was truly an artistic collaboration, not just to advertise the museum but to really highlight the creators who make Pittsburgh’s arts community as culturally rich as it is.
“I'm something that is tangible, that is from Pittsburgh, that is a young designer,” Ignozzi says about her role in connecting with the local creative community.
It’s also a way The Andy Warhol Museum can uphold its namesake’s legacy.
“There's a piece of him in there with each of them, you know,” Armstrong shares about the collaborating creators, “but in a very different way.”