Pop artists John Stango and Jeff Schaller are nationally recognized in the pop art scene, but they are about to share space with the work of a man even more outrageous and colorful than the brilliant artwork of theirs that is currently suspended throughout the local Pop Rocks Art Gallery in Rehoboth.

Owners of the local Pop Rocks Art Gallery in the CAMP Rehoboth Courtyard at 39 Baltimore Avenue in Rehoboth Beach, just announced the selection of their gallery as the site of an upcoming Andy Warhol at the Beach exhibit. The show, which is underwritten by PNC Financial, is made possible by the Pittsburgh-based Warhol Museum and functions as a kick-off for a larger show in Washington D.C.’s Corcoran Museum the following month. The Rehoboth exhibit will feature approximately 20-25 original photographs by Warhol. A reception, which is open to the public, will be held at the Baltimore Avenue gallery on August 27, 2005 from 6 to 9 p.m.

The decision to preview the Warhol show in Rehoboth is an indication that people who make decisions in the D.C. arts and culture scene are recognizing the huge draw the small beach town has for D.C. residents. The recent addition of the Pop Rocks gallery is the "perfect complement" to the urban show for the exhibit’s D.C. coordinators, according to Cassandra Toroian, one of the gallery’s four owners.

Warhol, who is often best known for his pop art of the 1960s including his Campbell’s Tomato Soup Can piece, also worked creatively in commercial art, film, drawing, and photography. He blurred the line between fine art, popular culture, and commercial art, drastically changing the way people think about art. The exhibit featured at Pop Rocks consists of a series of black and white photographs taken at the artist’s beach home in Montauk, Long Island. The subjects of the photographs are a rather eclectic group of celebrity friends of Warhol’s, including Mick Jagger.

Pop Art is "art that can make you smile," says Toroian, a sentiment that is echoed on the gallery’s website, www.poprocksart.com. Far from the typical beach chairs, landscapes, and shell-themed paintings, pop art can reflect the excitement, bright days, and brighter nights that many part-time residents or regular visitors find when they reach Rehoboth. Even Warhol’s black and white photographs capture the wackiness of living with a focus on pleasure and fun.

He would know; the artist’s 1970s Hampton summers were filled with famous guests, impromptu parties, and boundless creativity.

The Pop Rocks Art Gallery is in its first season of operation, and owners Toroian, Jackie Blue, Kimberly Grim, and Kelly Phillips have already hosted several exhibit openings. A show of the Warhol level is "a pretty cool opportunity," says Toroian, and will allow the gallery to continue in its efforts to strike a balance between artists of local and national repute. "The work we feature will change consistently; we have four or five more artists who we plan to feature in the near future. For them to say they exhibited work at the same gallery as Warhol is very exciting." In addition to Stango and Schaller, local artist Terry Isner’s Crazy Little Thing Called Love will open with a reception August 13, 2005. Isner is the artist behind this year’s dolphin sponsored by Jake’s Seafood for Rehoboth’s "Dolphins: The Seaquel."

The Warhol show will hang for three weeks, from the opening on August 27 through September 17. The gallery owners are donating a percentage of all proceeds made during the show to CAMP Rehoboth. For more information about the show or the opening reception, contact the gallery at 302-227-0502 or stop by their CAMP Rehoboth Courtyard (39 Baltimore Avenue) location.