Special Alert: Paige Powell, a fifth-generation Oregonian and longtime supporter of Pink Martini, first caused a sensational stir in Portland, Oregon in the mid 1970s when she stood outside the Multnomah Athletic Club and demanded that women be given full voting membership. As Public Information Director of the Washington Park Zoo, she taught chimpanzees sign language and ran the innovative and wildly successful “Zoo Doo” campaign, selling cans of elephant poop as garden fertilizer by the truckload.

In 1980, she moved to New York City and became Andy Warhol’s best friend and right-hand person at Interview Magazine.  She worked closely with Warhol on commissioned art projects and ran the magazine’s advertising, marketing, media and public relations departments.  She was instrumental in the careers of numerous artists, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julio Galan and Stephen Sprouse, among others.

Paige Powell with Jean-Michel Basquiat – courtesy of Paige Powell

Paige began taking photographs and videos of her friends in 1981.  As a result, she has the best photo documentation of Andy Warhol’s final seven years, and arguably the best collection of photo documentation of the New York art world from 1982 to 1994.  In addition, she has an extensive collection of photographs from 1994 to the present, which chronicle the ongoing careers of her friends in the art world.

In February 2014, she had her first solo photographic exhibition, Reclining Nude: Jean-Michel Basquiat, at the Suzanne Geiss Gallery in New York City.

And just this week, a limited edition print by Paige Powell of Jean-Michel Basquiat in Hawaii has been made available by online gallery Exhibition A. As of today, you can buy one of only 100 prints for $200. Get yours before they’re gone!

Jean-Michel Basquiat – courtesy of Paige Powell

For inquiring minds, here is a short write-up from Robin Kawakami at the Wall Street Journal that delves into Paige and Basquiat’s relationship a bit more.