Censorship closes Assassination of Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton
2008.Mar.11. Tuesday - by lvhrd
credits: Yazmany Arboleda
The weight of experience gets unsettled
Due to extreme legal pressures on the Leah Keller and Naomi Gates galleries, Yazmany Arboleda’s “The Assassination of Hillary Clinton” and “The Assassination of Barack Obama” have been closed indefinitely.
Arboleda’s had quite a bit of media attention for the exhibits, so much so, that he seems to have angered the right people.
Here is an excerpt from a letter he sent LVHRD:
“Thank you for all of the support you have shown for the exhibitions I recently launched. Your interest in my work is greatly appreciated, especially your encouraging emails and phone calls. Both “The Assassination of Hillary Clinton” installations and “The Assassination of Barack Obama” installations took a great deal of work to bring to life, and your support makes it absolutely worthwhile.
Unfortunately, the exhibits have been closed, pending legal action.
I am committed to reopening the shows as soon as possible and am hopeful that it is only a matter of time before both shows are open to the public again. However, at this point, I need your help to make this happen. The galleries are under tremendous legal pressure and I need help in persuading both the Leah Keller and Naomi Gates spaces to keep my exhibitions on view.
One would think this type censorship would only be possible in places like Cuba or China, but to think of it happening in New York is absurd.”
Both exhibits are available online:
The Assassination of Hillary Clinton
The Assassination of Barack Obama
We wrote about the exhibit here.
Email the galleries directly and encourage them to keep the exhibits open.
info@leahkellergallery.com (Hillary)
contact@naomigatesgallery.com (Barack)
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Mar.12.2008 : 6:17 pm
Sometimes censorship is a good thing but I actually wouldn’t call this censorship, just a forceful act of good taste. I’ve never seen such predictable gallery show title and juvenile showcase of ‘let’s pretend I’m an artist’. This is what happens when you have 60 galleries in a three block radius. Both gallery owners are either fascinated with low hanging fruit or all the interesting artists are taken. There is a big difference between being provocative and being boring that hasn’t donned on YA yet. Will someone please open the assassination of Yazmany Arboleda and fill it with pictures of her holding up her finger paintings in front of a bunch of 10 year olds hoping for acceptance. Maybe it would be really ‘daring’ if there was also an entire wall photo dedicated to portrait of Yazmany roasting on a spit over a healthy blaze of picassos blue period paintings on fire.
Mar.12.2008 : 6:35 pm
“Picasso blue period paintings” is a great phrase.
Mar.12.2008 : 7:05 pm
Is it just me, or does this smell like a hoax? All the pictures have clearly been Photoshopped and from what I can tell, the gallery address doesn’t exist.
Mar.12.2008 : 7:06 pm
We smelled it too. Sent an email to YA, waiting for a response…
Mar.13.2008 : 5:01 pm
has anyone checked out the galleries in person or online? odd that two galleries would accept the same artist and essentially the same ( hastily put together college art project) installation. i wonder what other “artists” these galleries exhibit? i hope this is a hoax. and i hope the trite MR. Arboleda is found out and exposed for the hack he is. can someone tell me if byrdo de beckwith is a white supremacist or an artist.
Mar.14.2008 : 11:31 pm
FYI: Yazmany is not female..he happens to be a guy..the closing of his exhibits is a complete act of wrongul censorship, whats so wrong about his artistic view on the Candidates???? Better yet who cares? It’s art and nothing more….certain things shouldn’t be taken so seriously.
Apr.5.2008 : 6:12 pm
This kid just got a pretty positive article written about him in the Miami Herald and while there was a mention of these shows, the article did little to explain what the shows were actually about, nor did the Herald provide any sort of link for readers to see for themselves.
The Herald article started with a story about how this kid wrote a note to himself before he went to New York saying that he wanted to be the most important/influentual artist of the 21st century.
These shows are clearly what happens when some one who is young and ambitious charts a course of becoming not just skilled, competent, or creative, but the most important artist of the 21st century.
Of course, given the times we live in and the level of political correctness that is in the land, this kid figured correctly that if he were to exploit some trite and tired images and symbols that he stood a good chance of being proclaimed an enfant terrible….looks like he succeeded.
Jun.4.2008 : 10:58 am
[…] were closed in their former homes at Leah Keller and Naomi Gates Galleries in Chelsea, due to “legal issues” stemming from its controversial topic matter. However, both exhibits will be on display for the last time at it’s location at […]
Jun.4.2008 : 6:42 pm
All I want to know is where is Bush and McCain? Why Hillary and Barack? Whoever this is, this is not what our country needs right now. We need unity from all parties. As an artist I find it strange that this is the only creative thing he could come up with. Peace.
Jun.5.2008 : 4:32 am
Regardless of the artistic merits, Yazmany Arboleda’s exhibition violates no law. Police interference with Arboleda’s lawful activities and Arboleda being hustled away for interogation by the Secret Service begs the question of who might the law-breakers be in this story.
Jun.6.2008 : 6:09 pm
the exhibit is very obvious…he explained that back in October. its meant to get people mad. but, i dont agree with WHY people are mad at it. like he said, its an exhibit showcasing the media’s character assassination of both barack and hillary. its a testement to the fear and prejuduce that the some media outlets are spewing and have been spewing about barack and all things associated with the notion of a black man moving into a position of power.