Artist Proof, first state, 2/3. Titled, numbered, signed, and dated verso: “Plate 3: Between the natural and the artificial / Lombardo 2024”.  Printed in Charbonnel Payne’s Gray ink on Hahnemühle Copperplate paper. A fine impression in fine condition. Sheet measures 13 x 16 inches.

Lombardo’s latest series, The Rodeo, uses Goya’s bullfighting images from La Tauromaquia as a jumping off point. The sport of bullfighting was an escape for Goya, and Lombardo similarly uses sport or showmanship as the focus of the plates. However, a deeper look at these images reveals the environmental effects of climate change as we engage in our grand distractions. 

Plate 3 takes place outside, which is the case with the first 10-12 plates of Goya’s bullfighting series. Here we see the construction, cleaning and repainting of Ugo Rondinone’s Seven Magic Mountains. Rondinone describes the intention of this work as bringing attention to humans’ effect on the natural landscape. It is built in the desert, just outside of Las Vegas. It cost 5 million to build and he has repainted it twice due to graffiti.