Pop Star: The Warhol's Eric Shiner

Here's just one highlight of one of the coolest gigs in town: when Eric Shiner offered a handshake to Michelle Obama, she ignored his extended hand and instead gave him a huge hug, then kissed him on both cheeks. "She's so real," the six-foot-five Warhol curator smiles. "She's fantastic."

That was after what he calls "two months of non-stop work to plan a two-hour luncheon." It wasn't just t just any luncheon but a once-in-a-lifetime event at the Warhol for the G-20 First Ladies when they were in town last year. While working with the White House on protocol and security had its share of headaches, Shiner says, "it was a huge honor for us."

Afterward, he even gave a private tour to Carla Bruni, First Lady of France, and Therese Rein, First Lady of Australia. "They are both huge supporters of the arts," Shiner says. "And they both had a great time."

These days, a great time seems to be Eric Shiner's lot in life. Or, as he puts it, "I have a really cool job."

After graduating Pitt in the '90s, the New Castle native took off to become a graduate student and art curator in Japan. Lured back to the states by a Yale Ph.D. program, he earned a master's instead and wound up in the New York art world. Older and wiser and infinitely more experienced, he rotated back home nearly two years ago, as the Warhol's Milton Fine Curator of Art.

"I'm most passionate about working with contemporary art," Shiner says. "It makes my job compelling and interesting." The soft-spoken man is dressed entirely in black -- jacket, shirt, pants, boots.  "From when I left town there's been an across-the-board sea change. There's energy here now -- an infusion of youth. College grads are staying. I think people have realized how amenable this city is for living. How affordable. How the cultural amenities are vast. The location is great. It's a fun, vibrant place now with all the sorts of things that make life interesting."

Including, for example, his own digs, a Garfield loft four times bigger than his Chelsea pad for a third the price. Hardly one to shirk, since assuming his duties Shiner has mounted some 10 shows, including takes on Playboy bunnies, The End: Analyzing Art in Troubled Times (30 artists looking at the financial collapse), and including model and photographer Bunny Yeager. "We tracked her down," he says, referring to Emily Hetzel of Caliban Books who helped. "It's her first museum show ever."

Speaking of firsts, he also tries to mount first museum shows for young artists, or at least include them in the mix. "That's been quite fun to do as well," he says. "I'm trying to do as much as I can with local artists, too, to help out where I can." To that end, he's currently working on Factory Direct, bringing 15 contemporary artists to reside in local factories for up to three months, producing new works of art.

He is choosing from 70 regional factories -- everything from Sarris Candies to a West Virginia glass marble maker to Bradford's Zippo lighters, to such usual suspects as Heinz, PPG, US Steel, and Alcoa. "It's about celebrating industry and innovation," he says, "about what Pittsburgh will be. We have such strong potential here. People need to believe that."

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Abby Mendelson's latest book, End of the Road, a collection of short stories, is available at amazon and bn.com.

Photographs copyright Brian Cohen