An exhibition in Biella, in the North of Italy, provides a fresh perspective on Andy Warhol, placing his engagement with fashion and textiles at the heart of his artistic legacy. Andy Warhol. Pop Art & Textiles, on view until 6 April, foregrounds the artist’s little-known work from the 1950s, highlighting how his early experiments as a fashion illustrator and graphic designer anticipated the creativity that would define his Pop Art.

Presented across two historic venues, Palazzo Gromo and Palazzo Ferrero, the show, organised by Palazzo Gromo Losa in collaboration with London’s Fashion and Textile Museum, traces Warhol’s trajectory from commercial illustrator to cultural icon. At Palazzo Gromo, a survey curated by Alberto Rossetti and Vincenzo Sanfo assembles some 150 works spanning his career, including screenprints, vinyl collaborations, ceramic tiles, celebrity portraits and emblematic Pop Art images such as Campbell’s Soup and multiple Marilyns. A dedicated section, Warhol and Italy, explores the artist’s ties to the country through works including Vesuvius screenprints from Intesa Sanpaolo’s Gallerie d’Italia.

Palazzo Ferrero, meanwhile, hosts Andy Warhol: The Textile, curated by Geoff Rayner and Richard Chamberlain. For the first time in Italy, it brings together a rare corpus of garments, fabrics and drawings from the London Fashion and Textile Museum, supplemented by vintage pieces from the 1950s and 1960s. Here, Warhol’s distinctive blotted-line illustrations are translated into vivid, rhythmic textiles, revealing the nascent graphic strategies that would later define his Pop oeuvre. The display resonates with Biella’s status as a UNESCO Creative City for Crafts and Folk Art, where thread, material and form meet the artist’s serial and experimental sensibilities.

The exhibition also includes an immersive reconstruction of the Factory, Warhol’s New York studio and social laboratory, offering visitors a sense of the collaborative environment that shaped an entire generation. Andy Warhol. Pop Art & Textiles positions the artist not merely as a Pop Art pioneer, but as a multidisciplinary innovator who moved fluidly between art, fashion and design, reshaping the visual culture of the 20th century. A must-see for any travellers to the North of Italy.