James Warhola

Who is James Warhola?

James Warhola is an American artist who has illustrated more than two dozen children's picture books since 1987.

A native of Smock, a coal-mining region in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, and of Rusyn origin, he is the son of Paul Warhola, Andy Warhol's oldest brother. James received a BFA degree in design from Carnegie Mellon University in 1977. From 1977 to 1980 he studied at the Art Students League of New York with Jack Faragasso, then privately with Michael Aviano.

He briefly worked for Andy Warhol at Interview magazine but left that job to become a science fiction illustrator, at which his uncle expressed his disgust in his diary.

As a science fiction illustrator in the early 1980s, Warhola did cover art for more than 300 books. His dense, tightly rendered covers were several steps away from the abstract covers of Richard M. Powers and Jack Gaughan which had been popular ten years earlier. Warhola is also one of Mad's "Usual Gang of Idiots," illustrating articles and covers for Mad.

He wrote and illustrated Uncle Andy's: A Faabbbulous Visit with Andy Warhol about his uncle.