Artist brings Warhol influence to Maine
By Suzanne Hodgson
Staff Writer
CBGB’s, a well-known punk club, may have closed four years ago in New York City, but Kymara Leechi Lonergan has a new place for the art and music of alternative media to thrive: southern Maine.
Leechi Lonergan has scheduled a “happening” – a constantly changing mix of visual art and music – at North Dam Mill in Biddeford and a “museum” at her bed and breakfast, Dock Square Inn and Antiques in Kennebunkport.
On Saturday evening, Leechi Lonergan will host the happening at the mill, which is open to the public. The show will include artwork by Billy Name, Jayne County, Detroit Punk Scene and local artist Alex Kaminsky, along with live performances by Jayne County and the War Hols and others.
Name was one of four official photographers during Warhol’s Factory years.
Kaminsky, a graffiti artist who has art in a number of downtown Biddeford shops including 3 Ds, has been under Leechi Lonergan’s tutelage for nearly two years. During a trip to New York City to set up his portion of the exhibit at the Chelsea Museum, Kaminsky taught local children, who came to the exhibit off the streets, how to draw artful instead of destructive graffiti, Leechi Loregan said.
“Part of pop culture is music and this leg of the museum, the permanent installation will have punk rock music because it is part of the language; it’s part of the visual art,” she said.
Leechi Lonergan first met Name in 1970 when she was 11 years old and hitchhiked her way from her hometown in Connecticut to the East Village in New York City. At the time, Leechi Lonergan said she had a crush on Name after seeing his photographs appear in galleries and magazines.
Name was the creator of Andy Warhol’s famous Silver Factory in a Manhattan studio apartment in 1964. Inside, the Factory became Warhol’s main workspace for the next several years. During that time he filmed the first of his “Jackie” movies and produced the first independent film, “Chelsea Girls,” shown in commercial theaters. Name was the only photographer to live at the Silver Factory with Warhol and photographed many celebrities during that time, including Edie Sedgwick.
Leechi Lonergan’s collection of Name’s photography takes on added importance because many of Name’s photographs have gone missing. Leechi Lonergan has been scavenged art auction houses around the world to try to bring the collection back together in Maine.
Until now the museum has been a traveling display, most recently at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City.
After some consideration, Leechi Lonergan decided to bring the show to her home base in Maine.
“The Port location was outgrown very quickly and we moved into Biddeford,” Leechi Lonergan said. The museum will try to stay in the mill area to keep the industrial feel, similar to Andy Warhol’s famous Factory.”
While some parts of the collection will continue to travel back and forth to New York, Leechi Lonergan said she always emphasizes Maine while outside the state.
“I want people to know about Maine and encourage tourism up here,” she said.
The collection will be known as the Billy Name Museum at Leechi Lonergan’s bed and breakfast, which will hold the museum in the carriage house.
Her collection is so big the bed and breakfast rooms have been covered with photographs, paintings and old costumes.
Leechi Lonergan has a space in North Dam Mill, where she works on her own collection, along with cataloging, hanging and playing with thousands of star sparkles that lay across the floor, reminiscent of a dance club.
Leechi Lonergan, along with Name and a few others, are herding in a new generation of artists, known as ante art. She describes the new art as artists not caring what other people may think of their work, whether it be too risqué or not the usual expectation of art.
Leechi Lonergan’s happening begins 7 p.m. Saturday at the Kymara Gallery at North Dam Mill in Biddeford.
The event is open to the public. Admission is $10 for the museum entrance, music and hors d’oeuvres, with most proceeds going to Animal Welfare Society.
Staff Writer
CBGB’s, a well-known punk club, may have closed four years ago in New York City, but Kymara Leechi Lonergan has a new place for the art and music of alternative media to thrive: southern Maine.
Leechi Lonergan has scheduled a “happening” – a constantly changing mix of visual art and music – at North Dam Mill in Biddeford and a “museum” at her bed and breakfast, Dock Square Inn and Antiques in Kennebunkport.
On Saturday evening, Leechi Lonergan will host the happening at the mill, which is open to the public. The show will include artwork by Billy Name, Jayne County, Detroit Punk Scene and local artist Alex Kaminsky, along with live performances by Jayne County and the War Hols and others.
Name was one of four official photographers during Warhol’s Factory years.
Kaminsky, a graffiti artist who has art in a number of downtown Biddeford shops including 3 Ds, has been under Leechi Lonergan’s tutelage for nearly two years. During a trip to New York City to set up his portion of the exhibit at the Chelsea Museum, Kaminsky taught local children, who came to the exhibit off the streets, how to draw artful instead of destructive graffiti, Leechi Loregan said.
“Part of pop culture is music and this leg of the museum, the permanent installation will have punk rock music because it is part of the language; it’s part of the visual art,” she said.
Leechi Lonergan first met Name in 1970 when she was 11 years old and hitchhiked her way from her hometown in Connecticut to the East Village in New York City. At the time, Leechi Lonergan said she had a crush on Name after seeing his photographs appear in galleries and magazines.
Name was the creator of Andy Warhol’s famous Silver Factory in a Manhattan studio apartment in 1964. Inside, the Factory became Warhol’s main workspace for the next several years. During that time he filmed the first of his “Jackie” movies and produced the first independent film, “Chelsea Girls,” shown in commercial theaters. Name was the only photographer to live at the Silver Factory with Warhol and photographed many celebrities during that time, including Edie Sedgwick.
Leechi Lonergan’s collection of Name’s photography takes on added importance because many of Name’s photographs have gone missing. Leechi Lonergan has been scavenged art auction houses around the world to try to bring the collection back together in Maine.
Until now the museum has been a traveling display, most recently at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City.
After some consideration, Leechi Lonergan decided to bring the show to her home base in Maine.
“The Port location was outgrown very quickly and we moved into Biddeford,” Leechi Lonergan said. The museum will try to stay in the mill area to keep the industrial feel, similar to Andy Warhol’s famous Factory.”
While some parts of the collection will continue to travel back and forth to New York, Leechi Lonergan said she always emphasizes Maine while outside the state.
“I want people to know about Maine and encourage tourism up here,” she said.
The collection will be known as the Billy Name Museum at Leechi Lonergan’s bed and breakfast, which will hold the museum in the carriage house.
Her collection is so big the bed and breakfast rooms have been covered with photographs, paintings and old costumes.
Leechi Lonergan has a space in North Dam Mill, where she works on her own collection, along with cataloging, hanging and playing with thousands of star sparkles that lay across the floor, reminiscent of a dance club.
Leechi Lonergan, along with Name and a few others, are herding in a new generation of artists, known as ante art. She describes the new art as artists not caring what other people may think of their work, whether it be too risqué or not the usual expectation of art.
Leechi Lonergan’s happening begins 7 p.m. Saturday at the Kymara Gallery at North Dam Mill in Biddeford.
The event is open to the public. Admission is $10 for the museum entrance, music and hors d’oeuvres, with most proceeds going to Animal Welfare Society.
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