This is America...

The special exhibit that I was there to see was: This is America | Art USA Today, featuring 40 American artists addressing current issues like identity, city culture, climate change and Trump. The large centerpiece was a crashed version of the General Lee, the orange Dodge Charger from the 70s TV series Dukes of Hazard with a Confederate flag painted prominently on its roof.

On the right was a collection of posters put together by Amplifier, a nonprofit design lab that builds art to amplify the most important movements of our time. 

On the left was a wall with billboards from around the US. This one really struck home with me as one of my biggest concerns about moving back to the US is the high cost of health insurance and medical care. I am incredibly impressed with the system in the Netherlands where having private insurance is mandated, but the government sets the fees charged. Thus my monthly health insurance is €133 (~ $160) and my annual deductible is €389 (~ $475) for full coverage except dental. 

This was thought provoking. I wonder if the artist knew that the Pilgrims lived in Leiden before boarding the Mayflower for the New World. 

This painting seemed especially accurate in its depiction of the media circus that revolved around the 45th President.

There was an entire section called: All Things Trump. Incredibly, Andres Serrano, a New York artist, spent roughly $200,000 on eBay in 2019 to build up a collection of approximately 1,000 Trump-branded items, a small portion of which were on display here. He had taken the large photo of Trump at Trump Tower in 2004, the same year that The Apprentice started. Fifteen years later, he paid $7,000 for the 10-foot tall rotating sculpture that once graced the Trump Taj Mahal Ego Lounge in Atlantic City (the casino closed in 2016).