In this essay I would like to address two queer artists each living on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain and producing works of art echoing their personalities and lives.

Everyone knows who Andy Warhol (1928–1987) was—he would usually be our first association with Pop Art and preoccupation with American consumer culture manifested through the silk-screened images of canned tomato soup, superstars, celebrities, and his own self-portraits. Andris Grīnbergs (b. 1946), on the other hand, would only be known to those who have a particular research-related or other interest in Latvia or the post-Soviet region and performance art, as Grīnbergs is mostly quoted as the pioneer of performance art in Latvia with the first Happening dated 1969.