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The Last Supper of Western Civilization
This essay will broach the subject of The Last Supper, a controversial artwork by photographer Elisabeth Ohlson. Deemed blasphemous by many, it was exhibited at the European Union Parliament in Brussels, Belgium in May of 2023. I will contrast Ohlson’s irreverent photo with a brief overview of how visual artists in the West have portrayed The Last Supper—the final meal…
New Works: Blazing Palm Trees
I’m working on a new series of large oil paintings depicting the ubiquitous palm trees of Los Angeles, set on fire and blazing away against L.A.’s photochemical sunsets. The works allude to the intrinsic wildness of my city, where every year the surrounding hills are swept by fire, a phenomenon experienced by no other major metropolis on earth. It is…
LAist Interview: Mark Vallen
Andy Warhol’s statement that “every person will be world-famous for fifteen minutes,” was an amazing insight into a consumerist culture driven by media, but he hardly could have imagined that artists would someday be interviewed in virtual publications that exist in a place called cyberspace. Here’s my fifteen minutes of world fame, as the LAist website put questions to me…
Exhibition: Man’s Inhumanity to Man
I exhibited a suite of four black and white drawings at Man’s Inhumanity to Man: Journey out of Darkness, an exhibition that took place at the Brand Library Art Gallery & Art Center in Glendale, California, from April to May, 2009. Forty four artists participated in the group show, which examined human rights violations that have occurred around the globe;…
Art Exhibition: American Beauties
Starting April 1. 2006, I’ll be exhibiting several paintings at American Beauties: Different Stories, a group show at SpaceOnSpurgeon gallery in Santa Ana, California. Two of my latest oil paintings, The Red Dress and La Muerta (The Dead Woman), will be on view for the first time – in fact they were both painted especially for this exhibit. I wrote…
Waltz with Bashir
It took Israeli director Ari Folman four years to create Waltz with Bashir, an unusual autobiographical animated film now in limited engagement across the U.S. that warns of the nightmares that follow in the wake of war. The movie opens with an unsettling vision, a pack of rabid dogs – twenty six to be exact, racing along wet streets under…


