"Death Defying Acts of Art and Conspiracy"

Back in 2000 I would get the Wall Street Jounal. I remember seeing an obituary for an artist named Mark Lombardi. He was manic depressive and was found dead in his studio, an apparent suicide. His work consisted of pencil drawn graphs, depicting flow charts of money. They were fastitiously researched from public records, and I remember the WSJ saying they uncovered some risque connections of the political and corporate elite. Several years later I ran into a retrospective of some of his drawings in a small gallery in New York. I asked another artist, showing at the gallery, of him, and found that he had been a friend, well known in that community and dearly missed. I then asked if it had been a 'suicide,' and was told that the whole affair had made little sense and did not seem right.

His drawings are beautifull, and foreboding, like a pinned and dissected venomous arachnid.
Most of the work are drawings which explore a particular financial collapse of a bank or investment house. The later work begins to get into the political realm, the movement of assets behind Iran-Contra, Iraq-Gate, and yes, terrorist ties to US politicians. He had had a few successful shows, and seemed poised to enter some artistic limelite. Perhaps his newest work would have been too expositional to be allowed. The police report says he hanged himself inside a deadbolted apartment, with no other access points. In my mind, he was killed. Follow the money and expect the same. All of this information is in public records, but no one mines it, and no one sees a bigger picture, or else they know better.

In Memorium
Pierogi gallery's thumbnails of his work
Mark Lombardi's library of sources was quite impressive.
An excellent article in 11211 magazine
a steamshovelpress.com article