Andy Warhol Is Back – in His “Nowhere” Land

Warning: Undefined array key "block_id" in /data/c/5/c5e91ff4-5c12-423f-8947-cab3841dc33a/kosicecityguide.sk/web/wp-content/plugins/ultimate-addons-for-gutenberg/blocks-config/image-gallery/class-spectra-image-gallery.php on line 966

The Andy Warhol Museum in Medzilaborce has reopened after a major renovation. Follow the story of the world-famous pop-art icon from Košice to the Rusyn village where his parents came from.

Warhol Is Back in Medzilaborce

Andy Warhol is back in Medzilaborce. After three years of renovation, the Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art reopened to the public on 4 September 2026. On the night of 3 September, a special train, which had been named SLOVAKIA-POP-ART, left Prague for visitors and arrived directly in Medzilaborce on the day of the opening.
Donald Warhola, Andy Warhol’s nephew, also attended the reopening. “Andy would be very happy and moved because he was always proud of his Slovak roots and culture. He was a great fan of new technologies and always used them in his work,” Donald said about the museum’s new multimedia design.
Multimedia technology is one of the most important new features. Visitors can see a hologram of Andy Warhol, while another multimedia screen shows a young Andy enjoying a can of delicious Campbell’s soup, which he later made famous in one of his screen prints. Other projections show Warhol’s black-and-white face emerging from a mass of colours, while his screen-print portraits of Queen Elizabeth and Marilyn Monroe seem to wink at visitors. Cigarette smoke rises from other pop-art faces.
According to Martin Cubjak, director of the Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art, the multimedia exhibition is designed to make visitors feel more emotionally connected to Warhol’s work. “Visitors will no longer just watch Warhol’s works passively – they will be able to experience them actively. We have connected original art, modern architecture, digital technologies, education and cultural tourism,” says Martin Cubjak.
The €15.9 million renovation, which lasted from April 2023 until the beginning of September 2026, has changed not only the appearance of the building but also the way visitors can experience Warhol’s work. New exposition and educational spaces have been added, together with another floor, new stairs, relaxation areas, a bistro, an amphitheatre and a walkable multifunctional roof. The museum is now also a cultural space for exhibitions, performances, concerts and other events.
The new exposition presents famous Warhol works such as Marilyn Monroe, Mao, Flowers and Campbell’s Soup II, as well as personal objects that belonged to the artist, including his sunglasses, Walkman and christening shirt. Warhol’s work is now presented in the wider context of pop art and contemporary art. The exposition also includes works by artists such as Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Robert Indiana and Banksy.
The President of the Slovak Republic, Peter Pellegrini, also attended the official opening. He described Warhol’s story as a story of Slovaks who left their homeland and found success abroad. He called the renovated museum a museum of the 21st century and said: “If they want to visit the Andy Warhol Museum, they can go either to Pittsburgh in the United States or to Medzilaborce in the Slovak Republic.”
There are only two museums in the world dedicated to Andy Warhol – one in Pittsburgh in the United States and the other in eastern Slovakia, in Medzilaborce, near the Ukrainian border. For lovers of Warhol, pop art and art, this is a remarkable fact: if they are travelling around Europe and are not planning a trip to the United States, Medzilaborce offers them the chance to visit the only Andy Warhol museum in Europe.
For the Prešov Self-Governing Region, which led the renovation, the project is also a way to connect world-famous art with the region where Warhol’s family came from. Milan Majerský, President of the Prešov Self-Governing Region, admitted that completing the project was difficult because of the pandemic, rising construction costs, an increase in VAT and the war in neighbouring Ukraine. “We did not give up, we went all the way to the end, and today our perseverance has been rewarded with this beautiful work,” he said at the opening.

Why Exactly Medzilaborce?

But to understand why Warhol has his museum in this small town in north-eastern Slovakia, we have to go almost a century back in time.
Andy Warhol was born in Pittsburgh in 1928 as Andrej Warhola. His parents, Júlia and Andrej Warhola, came from the Rusyn region of what is now north-eastern Slovakia. Júlia arrived in the United States in 1921, while Andrej emigrated several years earlier. Seven years later, their son was born – a boy who would become one of the best-known artists of the 20th century.
Even after the family settled in the United States, they remained closely connected to their roots. Júlia Warhol spoke Rusyn with her son throughout her life and never spoke fluent English. Andy kept a strong connection with his family’s Greek Catholic tradition. Religious themes and the visual language of icons are often mentioned in connection with his work, and the current exposition includes a multimedia iconostasis. Andy’s brother John later recalled how their mother told them stories about Miková and how, as children, they dreamed of one day travelling there by horse-drawn carriage.
Andy Warhol never made that journey. In 1987, he unexpectedly died in New York after an operation. He is buried in Pittsburgh, where his Greek Catholic funeral was held in the Byzantine tradition.
The story of Warhol’s Slovak and Rusyn roots was one of the reasons why a museum dedicated to his work was established in Medzilaborce in 1991. The idea came during a visit by Warhol’s brother John to the region. The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in New York later provided the newly established museum with original works on long-term loan.
More than thirty years later, the museum’s collection contains more than 400 original works by Warhol, as well as works by other pop-art and contemporary artists. During the renovation, expositions from Medzilaborce also travelled to other European museums.

From Košice to Miková

For visitors coming from Košice, a trip to Medzilaborce can become a short journey into the world of Andy Warhol. The town is more than 100 kilometres north-east of Košice, not far from the Polish and Ukrainian borders. From Medzilaborce, visitors can continue to Miková, the village connected with Warhol’s parents. Here, the story becomes much more personal: the famous American artist is no longer only the creator of colourful portraits of Marilyn Monroe or paintings of Campbell’s soup, but the son of emigrants from the small Rusyn village of Miková in the hills of eastern Slovakia.
The Warhol story can also be found much closer to Košice. Hotel Múza in Košice has its own gallery with original works by Andy Warhol, including a Marilyn Monroe painting and works with religious themes. For visitors who want to discover a lesser-known side of the pop-art icon, it can be an interesting addition to a trip to Medzilaborce.

The “Nowhere” Land

Andy Warhol once answered questions about his origins with the words: “I’m from nowhere.” Another of his famous quotes was: “In the future, everyone will want to be famous for 15 minutes,” a remarkably accurate prediction of the average length of today’s YouTube videos and social media posts, where we all want to be seen.
With his motto of 15 minutes of fame and a photograph of Andy Warhol wearing a grey wig on its façade, the renovated museum today welcomes every visitor to the “nowhere” land of one of the world’s best-known pop-art artists with Rusyn roots.

Written by Daniela Capcarová ©

A view of the Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art in Medzilaborce following its extensive renovation.
Source: Press Release of the Prešov Self-Governing Region

Multimedia panel with Warhol’s screen prints – part of the new exhibition
Source: The Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic