“Pete Marifoglou. The Warhol Years XXX”: Unpublished Work by Pete Marifoglou at MOMus – Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki

Voyeuristic scenes from adult films, images that today may feel culturally faded, in one way or another. Isolated faces that may now appear more or less sorrowful, or joyful. Harsh snapshots of cold executions of men and women, young and old alike, over minor disputes or gender-related issues.

All of these come together through the lens of Pete Marifoglou, an exceptionally sensitive observer of human presence, in the exhibition “Pete Marifoglou. The Warhol Years XXX”, presented at MOMus – Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, from January 29 to April 12, 2026.

After seven decades in New York and across Europe, working in photography, film directing and production, writing poetry, music and theatre, and presenting his work in photography exhibitions in France, Greece, the Netherlands and Germany, Pete Marifoglou returns to his birthplace, Thessaloniki.

The solo exhibition at the Case Studio of MOMus – Museum of Contemporary Art presents, for the first time in Greece, a largely unpublished body of work, capturing photographic glimpses of particular enclaves of New York’s social margins during the 1960s and 1970s.

As a young student and later graduate of the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York, Marifoglou worked on the sets of experimental adult films produced by Andy Warhol’s legendary Factory.

The mass production of low-budget pornographic films was one of Warhol’s ventures, through which he experimented with raw cinematic ideas that radically departed from mainstream cinema. Pornography, however, had already become an established mechanism for producing sexual representations.

Marifoglou focuses on analogue black-and-white photography and on the people beyond their roles in the films. He came to know their personal stories. His photographs, documents of both the films and the harsh social and cultural reality of New York, reveal the tenderness of his artistic gaze, free from artifice and glamour.

Curator: Thouli Misirlou, Artistic Director, MOMus – Museum of Contemporary Art – Collections of the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art and the State Museum of Contemporary Art
Assistant Curator: Katerina Syroglou

Pete Marifoglou (Panagiotis Marifoglou) was born in Thessaloniki in 1944. His family emigrated to the United States and settled in New York in 1950. Marifoglou lived in Manhattan and graduated from the High School of Art and Design, majoring in Architecture.

In the early 1970s, he began studying Film Directing and Screenwriting at the School of Visual Arts under the guidance of Jud Yalkut, a pioneer of experimental cinema. At the same institution, he also attended photography courses taught by acclaimed photographers such as Duane Michals, Robert Mapplethorpe and Diane Arbus.

At the same time, he attended lectures by major figures in art and public life, including Muhammad Ali, Andy Warhol, Salvador Dalí, Nam June Paik, Jonas Mekas, Stan Vanderbeek, James Stanley Brakhage, Gregory Markopoulos, Elia Kazan and Alfred Hitchcock.

He continued his studies at New York University (NYU), where he took courses in Film History and Anthropology. Alongside photography, Marifoglou created short films, taking on the roles of screenwriter, director, composer and actor.

He co-starred with legendary underground cinema figure Taylor Mead and also worked as a cinematographer on the film The Art Student, produced by Andy Warhol and directed by Alfonso Ciancarelli.

Part of the exhibition contains material that may not be suitable for underage audiences.