Artist Gehres emulates Andy Warhol in his work

From the T-shirt graphics he has created for fashion designer Anna Sui to the illustrations he has completed for The New Yorker, Pittsburgh artist Paul LeRoy Gehres -- aka Lucky LeRoy, Lonesome LeRoy and "LeRoy, King of Art," as he calls himself -- is Pittsburgh's latest Pop Art export, and quite possibly its most campy artist ever.

To say Gehres makes art in the vein of Pittsburgh native son Andy Warhol (1928-87) is an understatement. Gehres, who has created pop art out of subjects from cultural icons like Anna Nicole Smith to local native Stephen Foster, does more than just draw like Warhol. He makes screen prints and paintings like Warhol and even dresses a little off-kilter like the famous artist. And, like Warhol, he is a sponge when it comes to pop culture. He soaks it all in, from the weekly tabloid press to the daily dose of Fox's TMZ -- only to regurgitate it all in the form of silk-screen art, drawings, paintings and quilts.

Now, Pittsburghers have a chance to see what Gehres has been up to with "Paid Sick Days," his second solo show at Panza Gallery in Millvale. Gehres has covered nearly every square inch of wall space, even the ceilings, of the two downstairs galleries, with his works.

"It takes a while to absorb all of this," says gallery owner Mark Panza, standing in the middle of it. "I'm still finding things, and the show has been up now for over a week."

Gehres likens his fascination with Warhol, and his ersatz work in that vein, as something akin to that of an Elvis impersonator. "Anybody could wear a wig and impersonate Andy Warhol," says Gehres, who admits he has done so, even while making prints atop the famous artist's grave. But, he says, "So many people have done it. I'm just doing it in that way, like an Elvis impersonator."

Pointing to his painting of Anna Nicole Smith as a perfect example, Gehres says, "She wanted to be Marilyn Monroe, and I want to be Andy Warhol."

Also like Warhol, who painted his portrait of Marilyn Monroe shortly after her death on Aug. 5, 1962, Gehres painted Smith on Valentine's Day 2007, six days after Smith had died of an accidental drug overdose.

"I painted it on Valentine's Day, when there was an ice storm," Gehres recalls. "But even though there was this horrible ice storm, I thought, 'I have to paint Anna Nicole today!'"

In the gallery, his painting is surrounded by a blue vinyl tarp stenciled with tiny, multiple images of famed fashion designer Estee Lauder -- an homage, says the artist, to the many paintings of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis that Warhol painted.

Not a native Pittsburgher, Gehres nonetheless found the city was a natural draw. Now 47 and living in West View, he teaches fashion classes and the use of Adobe Illustrator at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.

Gehres first moved to Pittsburgh in 1979 to attend the Art Institute of Pittsburgh after growing up in Fredonia, Mercer County. After receiving his degree in commercial art from the Art Institute in 1982, he moved to Washington, D.C., to work as a T-shirt designer, ultimately making his way to New York City to complete a degree at Cooper Union in 1986.

After nearly two decades of working as a graphic artist and paying sky-high rent in Manhattan, he moved back to Pittsburgh in 2003, settling in Millvale, where he moved into an apartment on, of all streets, Sedgwick Street, where the gallery also happens to be located.

"I moved to Sedgwick Street because of Edie Sedgwick," says Gehres, who has a friend who is a cousin of the late actress, the most famous of Warhol's "Superstars."

Although he left Pittsburgh briefly to complete a master of fine arts degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2006, he returned and plans to continue living here because "Pittsburgh has everything, but on a smaller scale."

"Here, you can get to everything at a comfortable pace," Gehres says. "In New York, you always feel like you are missing something, because you can't get to everything."

And, he says, with TV and the Internet, "I don't feel like I'm missing anything by living here. What's fun is there's New York gossip, there's Hollywood gossip, and there's Pittsburgh gossip, and all of it makes its way into my work."

That's why, among the myriad images of Hollywood stars and Washington politicos, visitors will find a small silk-screen image of Beauregard, the beloved pet of this newspaper's publisher.

Gehres created the piece last summer, along with a companion piece depicting Trouble, Leona Helmsley's pampered pooch who was awarded a $12 million trust fund around the same time, because "I just wanted to create something that featured these celebrity dogs."

Adding to the fun, all of the pieces are priced in a treasure-hunt format in which each work has been assigned a number that corresponds to a price list ranging from $1 to $10,000. Many have been sold, but Panza says not all of the $1 pieces have been found yet.

Now is your chance to get a Lucky LeRoy original before, like the work of Warhol, it rockets in price. Additional Information:

Details

'Paid Sick Days'

What: New and recent works in an installation format by Pittsburgh pop artist Paul LeRoy Gehres, aka 'LeRoy, King of Art'

When: Through May 31. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays

Where: Panza Frame & Gallery, 115 Sedgwick St., Millvale

Admission: Free

Details: 412-821-0959