It's as if Andy Warhol had a premonition: During the final year of his life, he devoted himself obsessively to creating works after Leonardo da Vinci's famed mural "The Last Supper." It would turn out to be Warhol's last great series, as he died in early 1987, soon after a selection of these works premiered at an exhibition. Warhol was attracted to Leonardo's masterwork because, as he explained in a final interview, "It's a good picture. It's something that you see all the time. You don't think about it."
In his hands, "The Last Supper" could imply a critique of the commodification of a religious image, stand as a veneration of the celebrity-like status of the painting, or even offer a Pop celebration of Warhol's own religious faith.
On Friday night, tucked away in a warehouse in sleepy Emeryville, The Silver Factory came to life again–if only for an evening–when dead ringers for Warhol, Bob Dylan, Edie Sedgwick, Ultra Violet, and other superstars of the era converged to summon the ghosts of Pop Art past. They lounged on a replica of the Warhol's famous red couch before the glut of attendees packed the joint to beyond capacity. If you missed the image, take my word for it, this was a last supper moment indeed.
The full-scale re-creation included an open space covered floor to ceiling with tin foil and silver paint, bands performing the music of the Velvet Underground, and silk screeners popping art out by the gross.
The night was organized, and featured art, by employees at alternative weekly East Bay Express, Amoeba Music, and art collective Off Space, in cooperation with the de Young Museum.
4,000 guests attended the free event (the optional $10 food and drinks ticket was a steal: Limitless artisanal wines, microbrews, and an assortment of amuse-bouches from top local eateries). More than 100 artists were featured in the labyrinth of galleries. Film, photography, painting, collage and sculpture were on display, as was a neon-scrawled room given a psychedelic twist under black-lights.
Particularly fascinating were Billy Sprague's fleshy, organ-like murals, which should remind anyone familiar with contemporary installation art of Mark Dean Veca's famed works at the Yerba Buena Center and at London's Bloomberg Space.
1343 Powell St., Emeryville; 11 a.m.-2 p.m. through Saturday; amoeba.com.
