UNIQLO Sponsors KAWS + Warhol Exhibition Tour, Starting in Pittsburgh

Tokyo and Pittsburgh, Apr 25, 2024 - (JCN Newswire) - Global Apparel retailer UNIQLO and The Andy Warhol Museum today revealed that UNIQLO will act as the Presenting Sponsor for the global run of KAWS + Warhol, opening May 18, 2024, at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The exhibition features works by Andy Warhol and KAWS side-by-side and is the first to examine the dark themes present beneath the signature bright colors and pop culture references both artists are known for. UNIQLO support for the exhibition builds on the company’s years-long partnerships with both of these iconic artists. Based on the company’s long-held philosophy of Art for All, UNIQLO strives to make art more accessible to everyone.

“The concept of Art for All has long been a core part of the UNIQLO LifeWear philosophy, so we are delighted to support this monumental exhibition of works by both Andy Warhol and KAWS in reaching as many people as possible," said Koji Yanai, Senior Executive Officer of Fast Retailing, UNIQLO’s parent company. “This exhibition holds a special meaning for The Andy Warhol Museum, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. This is also an important year for UNIQLO as we welcome our 40th anniversary, which we are honored to welcome alongside our long-term partners and collaborators.”

The KAWS + Warhol exhibition will be on view at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from May 18, 2024, until January 20, 2025. The exhibition will tour internationally, stopping at Tokyo in 2026. UNIQLO will act as the Presenting Sponsor for the exhibition’s entire global tour to bring this collection of iconic works closer to the lives of people around the world.

“UNIQLO has a long association with both KAWS and Andy Warhol. The Andy Warhol Museum is honored to partner with UNIQLO to bring this extraordinary exhibition to a global audience.” said Patrick Moore, director of The Andy Warhol Museum and curator of KAWS + Warhol.

Andy Warhol’s art first appeared on UNIQLO products in 2004 under license with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and has been continuously featured on T-shirts and other products ever since. KAWS first collaborated with UT (UNIQLO T-shirt) for the Spring/Summer season of 2016 and has had collaboration collections with the brand of graphic T-shirts ever since. Past UT collections featuring these iconic artists can be viewed on the UNIQLO UT Archive website: https://www.uniqlo.com/jp/en/contents/feature/ut-archive/about/.

UNIQLO Art For All

For over a decade, UNIQLO has been committed to enhancing daily life through the appreciation of great art. The company endeavors to educate and increase public access and engagement with the most prominent art institutions in the world, including MoMA, Tate, the Louvre and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. These deep relationships with the world’s greatest museums are an expression of the UNIQLO LifeWear philosophy of Art for All.

About The Andy Warhol Museum

Located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the place of Andy Warhol’s birth, The Andy Warhol Museum holds the largest collection of Warhol’s artworks and archival materials and is one of the most comprehensive single-artist museums in the world. The Warhol is one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.

About KAWS

KAWS engages audiences beyond the museums and galleries in which he regularly exhibits. Over the last two decades, KAWS has built a successful career with work that consistently shows his formal agility as an artist, as well as his underlying wit, irreverence, and affection for our times. He has collaborated extensively with UNIQLO, including by providing designs for the PEACE FOR ALL charity project in 2022, which was a huge worldwide success.

About UNIQLO LifeWear

Apparel that comes from the Japanese values of simplicity, quality and longevity. Designed to be of the time and for the time, LifeWear is made with such modern elegance that it becomes the building blocks of each individual’s style. A perfect shirt that is always being made more perfect. The simplest design hiding the most thoughtful and modern details. The best in fit and fabric made to be affordable and accessible to all. LifeWear is clothing that is constantly being innovated, bringing more warmth, more lightness, better design, and better comfort to people’s lives.

About UNIQLO and Fast Retailing

UNIQLO is a brand of Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., a leading Japanese retail holding company with global headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. UNIQLO is the largest of eight brands in the Fast Retailing Group, the others being GU, Theory, PLST, Comptoir des Cotonniers, Princesse tam.tam, J Brand and Helmut Lang. With global sales of approximately 2.77 trillion yen for the 2023 fiscal year ending August 31, 2023 (US $18.92 billion, calculated in yen using the end of August 2023 rate of $1 = 146.2 yen), Fast Retailing is one of the world’s largest apparel retail companies, and UNIQLO is Japan’s leading specialty retailer.

UNIQLO continues to open large-scale stores in some of the world's most important cities and locations, as part of its ongoing efforts to solidify its status as a global brand. Today the company has a total of more than 2,400 UNIQLO stores across the world, including Japan, Asia, Europe and North America. The total number of stores across Fast Retailing's brands is now close to 3,600.

With a corporate statement committed to changing clothes, changing conventional wisdom and change the world, Fast Retailing is dedicated to creating great clothing with new and unique value to enrich the lives of people everywhere. For more information about UNIQLO and Fast Retailing, please visit www.uniqlo.com and www.fastretailing.com.

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Fast Retailing Global Corporate PR at fr_corporate_pr@fastretailing.com