“Tricky Ollie”

I designed Tricky Ollie to protest Oliver North's run for the United States Senate in 1994. North was convicted of three felony charges in 1989 stemming from his participation in the illegal effort to sell arms to Iran and then funnel the proceeds—via Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega—to the Nicaraguan Contras. North's convictions were ultimately vacated, however, effectively erasing his criminal record.

Tricky Ollie is a montage of Oliver North and President Richard M. Nixon, otherwise known as Tricky Dick. The poster forces a comparison of the two men and, by extension, of their scandals: Watergate and the Iran-Contra affair. (As an aside, I attended Richard M. Nixon elementary school while Nixon was president. His framed portrait hung in every classroom next to the American flag, and his image looms large in my psyche.)

I faxed Tricky Ollie to the Charles Robb campaign in 1994 and offered to let them use it, but I never heard back. Robb ultimately won the election, continuing to represent Virginia in the Senate. Sadly, my poster wasn't a contributing factor in Robb's re-election!

I finally screen printed the poster in 1998 so as to include it in a show of my work called “24 Reasons to Leave L.A.”

COLLECTIONS

• Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG), Los Angeles
• Denver Art Museum, AIGA Design Archives (The original 1994 xerox version)
• Deutsche Plakat Museum, Museum Folkwang, Essen
• Letterform Archive, San Francisco
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
• Museum für Gestaltung Zurich

EXHIBITIONS (1998 screen print)

• “What Would You Say? Activist Graphics from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,” (2022–2023)
Museum of Art & History, Lancaster; Riverside Art Museum;
Cal State Northridge; Vincent Price Art Museum, East Los Angeles

• “24 Reasons to Leave L.A.: Propaganda by Mark Fox” (1998)
Doyle/Logan Gallery, Los Angeles

EXHIBITIONS (1994 xerox)

• “Drawn to Action: Posters from the AIGA Design Archives” (2013)
Denver Art Museum

• “Communication Graphics 16” (1995)
American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), New York

• “Maximum Message/Minimum Means” (1994)
American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), New York

* * *

EDITION: Open (unsigned)

DIMENSIONS: 19 x 28.25 inches
MEDIA: Screen printed in black and white inks on chipboard

PRINTING: Mick Amaral at Acme Screen Printing / Novato
DESIGN: © 1994–1998 Mark Fox, BlackDog / SF