Runo Lagomarsino’s Kill All Lies, All Lies Kill, Lies Kill All (2024) draws on a provocative moment in art history. In 1974, Tony Shafrazi, then an aspiring gallery owner, vandalized Picasso’s Guernica at MoMA by spray-painting a phrase intended as LIES ALL KILL—a quote from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. Shafrazi’s act was both a protest against the Vietnam War and a bid for recognition within the art world. Miscalculating the letter size, he added KILL before the other words to fit the space. Though the text was quickly removed, the incident remains a powerful symbol of dissent.

Lagomarsino’s drawing reconfigures this phrase, layering the words Kill All Lies, All Lies Kill, Lies Kill All to explore the unstable relationship between truth and deception. The overlapping text invites viewers to reflect on language’s power, the politics of protest, and the fraught intersections of art, history, and activism.