Mark Lombardi: Global Networks

"The exhibition 'Mark Lombardi: Global Networks' and the accompanying catalogue focus on twenty-five remarkable works on paper, the oeuvre on which Lombardi (1951-2000) was working up until his death, and which represents his most significant artistic accomplishment. Together, these delicate and beautiful pencil drawings form an important and timely project for ICI and a gratifying means to enhance the understanding and appreciation of contemporary art internationally for a wide public, ICl’s mission. The importance of this project is three-fold. First, this exhibition is the first retrospective of Lombardi’s compelling and influential work and will, through ICl’s tour, be seen by museum visitors across the country, while the catalogue offers the first in-depth research and critical discussion of Lombardi’s unique undertaking, enabling the work to travel far beyond the venues where it is shown and to take its place in an international discourse. Second, this project allows us to present Lombardi’s work in the context of its influential role, both visually and conceptually, in the current surge of renewed interest in, and critical attention to, the medium of drawing. And finally, curator Robert Hobbs's essay and the exhibition affirm the significance of Lombardi’s work as “contemporary morality tales.” Looking at the works, we are drawn into a dense but ethereal web of straight lines and curves that plot the network of transactions, spheres of influence, and chief players in true-crime stories on a global scale. He invented a new method for creating a visual narrative, and his work can help us understand the clandestine world of corporate and business connections behind the scandals now eroding public confidence in financial and government institutions, and offers clues for untangling the complex economic underpinnings of current political developments."