Why the Andy Warhol exhibition at Lakeside Arts is interesting and important
The exhibition features iconic art, early works, rarely-seen photos, and more…
Our city often hosts amazing artworks – and the Andy Warhol: Pop Icon exhibition, filled with original and unusual pieces from the American artist, is especially momentous for Nottingham.
We spoke with Lakeside Arts’ interim head of visual arts programme Ashley Gallant about how the famous art came to exhibit here, key pieces to look out for, and why it’s important to have work like this in spaces outside of London.
If you’re looking for things to do in Nottingham this January and in 2026, Andy Warhol: Pop Icon is showing at Lakeside Arts until April 19. For more guides and features like this, subscribe to The Notts Edit to receive our articles in your inbox.
Why the Andy Warhol exhibition at Lakeside Arts is interesting and important
Words and photos by Eve Smallman
When it comes to famous artists from the 20th century, American pop artist Andy Warhol is certainly one of the most renowned. He reimagined this time period of great social, political and technological change through various different mediums.
The Pop Icon exhibition at Lakeside Arts showcases this with original pieces from throughout his life, from the ARTIST ROOMS collection – a national collection shared by Tate and National Galleries of Scotland.
Nottingham is a city with plenty of culture and artistic influences, but an exhibition of this prestige is still incredibly momentous for the area. “It’s really important to me, and to Lakeside Arts, that geography should not be a barrier to accessing world-class arts. We should not expect audiences outside London to have less access to arts and culture,” says Ashley Gallant, interim head of visual arts programme at Lakeside Arts.
He continues, “I grew up unable to travel because of my parents’ health, and my local university gallery was critical in me being able to access world-class artworks. If it wasn’t for that space, I wouldn’t have been able to access the art world, be inspired and go on to work in the sector.”
ARTIST ROOMS aims to share works from a number of internationally important artists by touring focused ‘rooms’ around the country. Andy Warhol is particularly important, with him being widely considered the father of Pop Art and being key in changing what could be the subject matter of art.
“Warhol challenged the idea that art should be about portraits of important figures or beautiful landscapes or personal expression and abstraction, and made artworks about fame, death, celebrity, and everyday objects we find in our homes like Coca-Cola bottles and Campbell’s Soup cans,” Ashley explains. “He really made the idea that the everyday, the things lots of people were interested in, could be artworks as well. He blurred the lines between popular culture and ‘high art.’”
As well as this, Warhol also made real shifts in what art could be made from. “Warhol would use screen-printing, which is a commercial process made to use posters and adverts, to make images of commercial products,” Ashley explains. “He asked some really interesting questions on what makes an artwork, an artwork. If the poster of the soup can and the painting of it are made with the same process, what makes one art and another not?”
The ARTIST ROOMS showcases artists’ bodies of works from across their life, painting (pardon the pun) a wider picture of how their work evolved through their ability progression and their life experiences. In this Andy Warhol exhibition, the range goes from magazine front covers for student magazines to works themed around death after his assassination attempt.
Many of the pieces are very pertinent today, with pieces in the show looking at our relationship with Russia, junk food, and celebrity. “Warhol recorded everything obsessively and photographed and filmed large parts of his life which, today with debates on social media bans for under 16s, seems incredibly relevant,” Ashley says.
There are plenty of iconic works that you’ll recognise, such as the very famous Marilyn Monroe works from 1967. “I think they are so often reproduced, and so hopefully visitors will be surprised how bright and neon they are in real life. I was certainly excited to unwrap them and see the silvers and pinks really pop,” Ashley tells me. There is also the famous large red self-portrait where Warhol has the spiky hair and a set of the famous electric chair pieces from his Death and Disaster series.
The exhibition features a number of unusual pieces to look out for. “We have a number of stitched photographs from the end of Warhol’s life which are very rarely displayed, so it’s really exciting to be able to show an entire grouping of these,” Ashley explains. There are also some fashion illustrations from the very beginning of his career which are lesser known.
Ashley also has his favourites – the Polaroid portraits of Warhol that sit alongside the famous red self-portrait. “There is something about them where it really feels like he is in the room, like you know this image was taken with a Polaroid camera right in front of him, and the very light in that room made the image. These feel really intimate and special and close to him,” Ashley says.
A large theme in Warhol’s work is how images work in the world, and how images form the world around us. “Repetition of an image can create fame, notoriety and importance, and the most visible people become the most important,” Ashley says. “There are also very large themes like sex, money and capitalism, and how they have always been part of art history and life, but how they play out in the America in which Warhol lived.”
If you’re heading to Lakeside Arts to see this exhibition, it’s certainly worth keeping these themes in mind. It’s also a breeze to get to, with the University of Nottingham being on the tram route. “It’s unusual to have a gallery within a setting that can bring in staff and students from the university and is open and welcoming to everyone in the city,” Ashley finishes by saying. “We are really excited to be able to display some of the most recognisable artworks in the world here in Nottingham.”
Andy Warhol: Pop Icon is exhibiting at Lakeside Arts until April 19, and tickets are £6pp (concessions free). lakesidearts.org.uk
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