ABOUT ME
From left to right: Dave McLennon, David Koch, Charles Koch, Sheldon Andelson, Michael Bloomberg, Rupert Murdaugh, Arthur Sackler, Mortimer Sackler, Raymond Sackler, Ronald Lauder
Reptilians with Tentacles2023
January - April 2023
10x 4’ x 8’
Acrylic paint on canvas stretched on masonite board
10x 4’ x 8’
Acrylic paint on canvas stretched on masonite board
These ten large-scale paintings depict billionaires with powerful, greatly unseen influences, specifically in New York City. The series aims to bring attention to the flaws of billionaire philanthropy and how these few old, cis-gendered, heterosexual, able-bodied white men can decide what issues are important based on where they donate their money.
In 2021, I worked as an intern at the Sackler Center for Arts Education at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. A year later, I was working in the Gail May Engelburg Center for Arts Education. I watched the signage get taken down, and new carpets be installed. Later, I was told about the atrocious acts of the Sackler family, how their pharmaceutical company had been instructing doctors to overprescribe doses of painkillers, particularly Valium and Oxycontin, needlessly addicting patients and destroying lives for the sake of a profit.
I also learned about the Guggenheim’s relation with Bloomberg Philanthropy, and how information and audio guides for the artwork on display are buried deep in an inaccessible app, that ultimately does not get used. This prevents and discourages people from using these resources that curators work so hard to develop.
As a fierce lover of art museums, it was as if my world was falling apart the more I researched the names, the people, that my favorite galleries have been dedicated to. One after another, I was confronted with stories of curmudgeoned men who kept out of the public eye, as they avoided paying taxes on their immense wealth by collecting and donating art, what they view as a mere liquidable asset.
I created these giant portraits to allow people to feel how much money, power, and influence each of these billionaires wields, and to show their faces instead of just their names.
In 2021, I worked as an intern at the Sackler Center for Arts Education at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. A year later, I was working in the Gail May Engelburg Center for Arts Education. I watched the signage get taken down, and new carpets be installed. Later, I was told about the atrocious acts of the Sackler family, how their pharmaceutical company had been instructing doctors to overprescribe doses of painkillers, particularly Valium and Oxycontin, needlessly addicting patients and destroying lives for the sake of a profit.
I also learned about the Guggenheim’s relation with Bloomberg Philanthropy, and how information and audio guides for the artwork on display are buried deep in an inaccessible app, that ultimately does not get used. This prevents and discourages people from using these resources that curators work so hard to develop.
As a fierce lover of art museums, it was as if my world was falling apart the more I researched the names, the people, that my favorite galleries have been dedicated to. One after another, I was confronted with stories of curmudgeoned men who kept out of the public eye, as they avoided paying taxes on their immense wealth by collecting and donating art, what they view as a mere liquidable asset.
I created these giant portraits to allow people to feel how much money, power, and influence each of these billionaires wields, and to show their faces instead of just their names.