By Emma Bouthillette
Staff Writer
Kymara Gallery in the far corner of North Dam Mill in Biddeford is undergoing a transformation. Kymara Lonergan, with the help of her husband Eric, is using more than 4,000 square feet of aluminum foil to turn Kymara Gallery into Andy Warhol’s Silver Factory of the 1960s.
Warhol’s factory on 47th Street in Manhattan served as his studio from 1962 until 1968 and is an indication of a period of his work, Lonergan said. This work includes Warhol’s famous silkscreen prints of Marilyn Monroe and the painting featuring Campbell Soup cans. Warhol also shot a series of films at the factory.
The redecoration of the gallery is for the July 11 opening of “Supernovas.” The exhibit will feature three Warhol Superstars, actors in Warhol’s films. Superstars Billy Name, Bibbe Hansen and Ultra Violet were regulars at the original factory. Some 40 years later, they are exhibiting their own artwork in Biddeford.
Lonergan, a Kennebunkport resident, said she has displayed and sold artwork since she was 11 years old. At the time, her parents owned a bed and breakfast with an antique shop in Kennebunkport.
“I would go to the Bar Mills Auction and do all the buying for my dad’s shop and inn,” Lonergan said.
Lonergan recently closed Kymara Gallery in Kennebunkport, and found a space for rent in North Dam Mill.
“The idea developed as I was sitting in the car listening to Velvet Underground. I thought to get Ultra Violet’s work and have accoutrements to develop her persona. It all just fell into place from there,” Lonergan said.
Lonergan said Ultra Violet was her childhood idol.
“Ultra Violet is a very talented artist and a cultural icon. She affected a lot,” Lonergan said.
 Lonergan said the connections she made during the years running her art gallery and as artists’ agent provided her with the contacts she needed to put the show together. She said she contacted Ultra Violet in January to ask her to participate in the exhibit.
“Kymara came to me to do a show with my work, so I said fine, OK,” said Ultra Violet of New York.
Ultra Violet said she was a pupil and assistant to Salvador Dali, and Dali introduced her to Warhol in 1963. During the sixties, Ultra Violet acted in Warhol’s films “Conquest of the Universe” and “I, A Man.”
 The majority of the artwork in the exhibit will be Ultra Violet’s paintings, who said her belief in angels and God has influenced her art. Lonergan has used Ultra Violet’s “Apocalyptic Angel” on a poster for the event, an image with an angel on a jet fighter with the Twin Towers in the background, created in 1991. Another painting included in the exhibit is “Michelangelo.”
“This is a cross between Mickey Mouse and the body of Adam. I have taken the portrait by Michelangelo of the first man and matched it with the first animal to talk, and given it wings,” Ultra Violet said.
Lonergan said she plans to have an ongoing Ultra Violet Boutique in the gallery to sell various items related to the exhibit. For the Supernovas exhibit, Lonergan has bags with Warhol prints, signed copies of Ultra Violet’s book and other Warhol related items for sale. A portion of proceeds of boutique and art sales will be donated to the Franny Peabody Center in Portland.
“The Peabody Center is a center for people with advanced HIV and AIDS. A very close friend of mine died of AIDS and I have many friends in the artistic community affected by HIV or AIDS,” Lonergan said.
Lonergan said Ultra Violet put her in touch with Billy Name’s agent Kevin Kushel. Warhol asked Name to decorate his factory, using silver paint, aluminum foil and fractured mirrors to turn the factory completely silver. Lonergan said.
Lonergan said the gallery will have a series of limited edition prints of Name’s photographs, which were all taken at Warhol’s factory. Lonergan has used many of the images on postcards to promote the event.
Kushel then put Lonergan in touch with Bibbe Hansen, whose father, photographer Al Hansen introduced her to Warhol at the age of 14. Lonergan said Bibbe Hansen’s father had recently bailed her out of jail and this became Warhol’s inspiration for the film “Prison.” Bibbe Hansen starred in the film with Edie Sedgwick, and the two discussed their experiences in prison, Lonergan said.       Bibbe Hansen’s artwork for the exhibit includes “Sewn Pieces on Paper” and “Birdhouses.” The sewn pieces are images Bibbe Hansen outlined with embroidery stitches, and the birdhouses have artwork inside giving a form of pop social commentary, Lonergan said.
“It is concentric rings to make up a sphere. Being able to display my work with artists like this is a great thing,” Hume said.
The exhibit opening will include a “work of living art” by performance art group “Expanding Electrical Experience,” Lonergan said. She said members of the group are international performance artists and will enact a transformation from beautiful to ugly.
“It would be Andy’s 80th birthday in August. The show is going to be a whole package. It will have a Warhol look with Warhol music,” Lonergan said.
North Dam Mill provides the perfect setting for the Supernova exhibit, Lonergan said.
“Greenwich Village was an environment conducive to producing new art and music. This is what the village looked like when I was 12. These guys are coming here because this is what it used to be like. The possibilities of who can come here are endless,” Lonergan said.
The grand opening for Kymara Gallery and the reception for the Supernova exhibit is at 6 p.m. July 11 and the exhibit will remain through the end of August. Gallery hours are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday or by appointment. For more information, please call Kymara Lonergan 967-5773.