Marking over a decade of partnership through material, process, and reinterpretation.
Henzel Studio Heritage: Andy Warhol is a collection of limited-edition art rugs developed in collaboration with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, celebrating a decade of partnership. This collaboration reflects Henzel Studio’s ongoing commitment to reinterpreting the works of some of the most influential artists of the 20th century through the medium of handcrafted rugs, bridging the worlds of contemporary art and traditional craftsmanship.
Each limited-edition rug in the collection is drawn from Andy Warhol’s iconic imagery. Realized through a meticulous hand-knotting process, the works translate Warhol’s compositions—whether defined by striking color or distilled in black and white—into tactile, functional form. Each piece emerges as a singular interpretation, uniting the artist’s spirit of experimentation with Henzel Studio’s commitment to craftsmanship, material integrity, and lasting significance.
Over the course of this decade-long collaboration, Henzel Studio has worked closely with the Warhol Foundation to ensure that each design remains true to Warhol’s original vision while adapting it to the scale, texture, and rhythm of a hand-knotted rug. The resulting collection allows collectors and art enthusiasts alike to engage with Warhol’s visual language in a wholly new format — one that merges artistry, functionality, and craftsmanship.
By reimagining Warhol’s imagery as rugs, Henzel Studio Heritage presents pieces that are both decorative and collectible, each one offering a unique opportunity to experience the artist’s work in a form that is simultaneously intimate, tactile, and enduring. This collection stands as a testament to the shared vision between Henzel Studio and The Andy Warhol Foundation, celebrating ten years of collaboration, creativity, and a lasting dialogue between contemporary art and handcrafted design.
Image: Andy Warhol, self-portrait, 1979
© / ® / ™ The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
Henzel Studio Heritage: Andy Warhol (2015 - 2025)
Henzel Studio, in collaboration with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, presents a catalog featuring the Marilyn Monroe Maquette Book, Calle Henzel’s interpretations of Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe Portraits, and the Oxidation Paintings. Together, these collections highlight different dimensions of Warhol’s practice—process, iconography, and material experimentation—reimagined within a contemporary design context.
Image: ANDY WARHOL, Marilyn, 1967
© / ® / ™ The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
Henzel Studio presents a second collection of handmade art rugs in collaboration with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, inspired by one of Warhol’s most controversial yet abstract series, the Oxidation Paintings from 1978.
After two years of painstaking development and production, the result is a remarkably seamless adaptation, where similar oxidation outcomes and comparable textures have been achieved. When making his Oxidation paintings, Warhol laid his canvases down on the floor, coated them with copper paint, and then directed his assistants or visitors to his studio to urinate on them while the paint was still wet. The acid from the urine oxidized the metal in the copper paint, creating an abstract shimmering effect. Insisting on the importance of artistic skill when creating the paintings, Warhol explained: “If I asked someone to do an Oxidation painting, and they just wouldn’t think about it, it would just be a mess. Then I did it myself – and it’s just too much work – and you try to figure out a good design.”
Warhol’s Oxidation paintings resulted in an abstract exploration of differently shaped stains, intricate color-shifts and shimmering surfaces. Far removed from his previous work, which to date had been largely derived from photography and transferred to canvas via silk-screening, this was the first time he committed to a certain kind of painterly abstraction reminiscent of Abstract Expressionism. Calle Henzel, founder and creative director of Henzel Studio, experimented extensively with various techniques that in practice might seem contradictory and destructive – but one that allows for a closer dialogue with the original works. The abstractions, freeform shapes and variable pile heights of these rugs are coincidentally closely tied with Calle Henzel’s signature designs, many of which are informed by free-form shapes, interplay between volume and dimensions, effects of erosion and geological formations – characteristics that have carved a trademark place for Henzel Studio in art and interior design. Aesthetics aside, Joakim Andreasson, curator Henzel Studio Collaborations / Heritage, found it intriguing to explore adapting works that were created on the same plane field as the one rug traditionally inhabit – the floor. With the Oxidation Paintings being executed through elements of chance, random and performance comparable to the making of Yves Klein’s paintings, it is compelling to see how these engaging works in turn are given an alternate life as elements of physical and domestic engagement.
Image: Andy Warhol, portrait. © / ® / ™ The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
