We Should All Be Famous 

Curator: Alright, let's talk about this intriguing piece—"We Should All Be Famous" by Joseph Lorusso. No date is listed, and it's an oil painting. It strikes me immediately as a scene bursting with a kind of nervous energy, almost claustrophobic. Editor: Yes, claustrophobia is spot-on! The crush of faces, the vintage cameras, those aggressively bright flashes. It feels like a primal swarm. What exactly are we seeing, or better yet, what’s not being revealed in the moment the artist chose to render this work in time? Curator: What we are seeing, quite literally, is celebrity and fame. The faces, rendered in that evocative realism, surround a central, enigmatic figure shielded by sunglasses. A motif emerges: a mask over the unknown. The piece toys with the voyeuristic hunger to peek behind that facade. I think that Lorusso evokes something deep within each and every viewer, particularly, as each person carries around in his pocket today a powerful instrument of instantaneous connection, documentation, and of possible—but momentary—celebrity. Editor: Absolutely, it's that fleeting, ephemeral nature that rings true here. I immediately recognized a psychological study of celebrity culture through the strategic use of visual symbols, of masks, of ritualistic capture—those antique flashbulb cameras pointed like ritual instruments! Each individual photographer seeks to claim a portion of this anonymous figure at the painting's center. Curator: Each trying to snag that moment! Exactly right! There’s such a raw quality—a little menacing, maybe—as this individual disappears inside that chaos. A sea of humanity can feel dangerous for exactly that reason: as one merges into the next in any anonymous scenario. The composition itself seems intentionally off-kilter; its crowded nature amplifies that. Editor: Precisely. And, the use of oil heightens the sense of unease. It feels both contemporary and anachronistic; are these our fears about contemporary celebrity, or, are we witnessing the vestiges of an image stuck on loop within cultural memory. This composition taps into the primal dynamic between worshipper and worshipped, but with a deeply modern, skeptical lens. Curator: A cyclical image on loop, in memory, within each of us, where we get a glimpse of the whole from many disparate pieces of ourselves—but it leaves me questioning what “whole” any single person—subject or artist—really grasps at any moment. Editor: Yes! And perhaps that is what this artwork has offered up as a token for reflection on this day.