This is a tale of two cities, though I imagine Charles Dickens never imagined anything like the following. The story has to do with one garden city where gentlepeople exalt art, and another cosmopolis… actually the very same burg, where those identical magnificos step over bodies to see first-class art exhibits. Wherever you are in Los Angeles, you will come…
As a Los Angeles born artist, the tale of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is a personal story for me; I’m actually older than the museum. My anecdotes will offer a glimpse of its glory days, and my photo essay will depict its inevitable physical destruction under its Director and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Govan. Mr. Govan…
On February 1, 2015, 4,000 workers belonging to the United Steelworkers Union (USW), walked off their jobs at nine oil refinery and chemical plants across the US. By Feb. 10 another 1,400 workers went on strike at two refineries in Indiana and Ohio. The strike now effects 11 oil refinery and chemical plants used by BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Marathon Petroleum,…
A monumentally important federal court ruling was quietly made on Sept. 4, 2014; it was a decision barely reported on by the national media. On that date a federal judge in Louisiana found BP responsible for the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster of 2010, the worst oil spill in the history of the U.S. The court also found the oil…
I am one of 205 signatories to a letter published in The Guardian that asks the National Portrait Gallery of London, England to end BP funding of its esteemed annual competition and prize, the so-called BP Portrait Award. Published on June 24, 2014 the letter was timed to coincide with the museum “celebrating” 25 years of BP sponsorship. The National…
Hallowe’en… what fearfu’ pranks ensue! This October 26, 2013, the trendy vampires and way-out ogres of Los Angeles will shamble and hobble their way to the 10th-annual Muse Costume Ball thrown at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). By a route obscure and lonely, haunted by ill angels only, the museum promotes their monstrous masquerade ball as “haunted by…
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), sponsored by the multinational oil company BP – responsible for the biggest toxic oil spill in history, had the unmitigated gall to organize “greenwashing” activities on its museum campus for Earth Day. Posting an announcement on the LACMA website for the April 21, 2013 Earth Day activities, the museum gave its day…
With scarcely any coverage on TV news, multinational oil company BP pleaded guilty on Nov. 15, 2012 to 14 criminal charges related to the death of 11 oil rig workers and the corporation having spilled over 200 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. BP agreed to pay $4.5 billion in penalties for the Deepwater…
