Mark Lombardi: Global Networks

SAN FRANCISCO, November 18, 2003—Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is proud to present the first retrospective of Mark Lombardi's innovative work, January 17 to April 4, 2004. Organized by Independent Curators International (ICI), Mark Lombardi: Global Networks presents twenty-five of Lombardi's elaborate and discerning drawings, beginning with a piece from 1984 and then moving to the period of 1994–2000. The exhibition includes several monumental drawings (some as large as 54x140 inches), the six successive stages of one of his drawings and examples from the artist's index card archive. In light of recent economic and political developments, this retrospective affirms the significance of Lombardi's work.

In delicate, intricate and poetic drawings, made with graphite and colored pencil, Lombardi maps the economic underpinnings of our global society, investigating international financial scandals. His drawings illustrate the networks through which global capital flows and the webs of corruption between political leaders, corporate leaders, religious institutions and members of organized crime. Influential leaders such as George Bush, Ronald Reagan, Oliver North, Australian bankers Frank Nugan and Michael Hand, Pat Robertson, Bill Clinton and Saudi Banker Khalid bin Mahfouz are some of the protagonists in these narratives, teaming up with prominent international corporations and banks to further their political and economic agendas. New York Times art critic Roberta Smith praised the "visual verve" of Lombardi's work, resulting from his "delicately tracing the convoluted unfoldings of contemporary morality tales."

Lombardi called his works narrative structures because "each consists of a network of lines and notations which are meant to convey a story." A former librarian, Lombardi tried to be as accurate as possible and always made clear that his research was not primary research. He used information from newspaper accounts, books, television and other sources of public domain. In the course of his work he generated approximately 14,000 index cards with notations, some of which will also be on display in this exhibition. Lombardi's drawings often include the dates of particular events and are sometimes arrayed across three horizontal tiers. These dates support arcs denoting personal and corporate alliances, the whole comprising of skeletal resumes of the protagonists. Lombardi worked in series and on each theme for a long time, adding more and more information to each version in the series, sometimes creating up to seven drawings addressing one topic. This exhibition includes and example of one of these series. Mark Lombardi: Global Networks is accompanied by a 1997 videotape interview with Lombardi, who died in 2000, and a fully illustrated catalog.

Mark Lombardi: Global Networks is a traveling exhibition organized and curated by Independent Curators International (ICI) in New York. The exhibition was curated by Robert Hobbs, the Rhoda Thalhimer Endowed Chair, Virginia Commonwealth University. The exhibition, tour and catalog are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Judith Rothschild Foundation and by support from the ICI International Associates and the ICI Independents. The catalog is partially underwritten by the Virginia Commonwealth University, School of the Arts with private gifts. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts's showing of Mark Lombardi: Global Networks has been made possible by a generous gift from Mike Wilkins and Sheila Duignan.

Mark Lombardi: Global Networks Organized by Independent Curators International, Global Networks is a solo exhibition of Mark Lombardi's hand drawn diagrams. Lombardi's diagrams illustrate the webs of corruption between political leaders, corporate leaders, religious institutions and members of organized crime. Both intricate and monumental, the drawings are visual narratives of the exclusive networks through which capital circulates in a trans-national economy. Influential leaders such as George Bush, Ronald Reagan, Oliver North, Australian bankers Frank Nugan and Michael Hand, Pat Robertson, Bill Clinton and Saudi Banker Khalid bin Mahfouz are some of the protagonists in these narratives, teaming up with prominent international corporations and banks to further their political and economic agendas. A former librarian, Lombardi tried to be as accurate as possible in his research, culling information from published sources, but made a point of stating that his research did not stem from primary investigation. Part of the 14,000 index cards upon which he recorded and noted this information will also be on display in the exhibition, as well as a documentary interview with the artist, who died in 2000.

Mark Lombardi: Global Networks
Retrospective
Mark Lombardi´s hand drawn diagrams
Kuratoren: René de Guzman, Berin Golonu
Organisation: iCI (Independent Curators International)