> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Mona Chalabi on Money and Art - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/mona-chalabi-on-money-and-art/ - Published: 2026-11-10T11:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-10T11:00:01.000Z - Description: An interview with the Pulitzer Prize winner, Lori Waxman on bringing sexy back in Chicago, stolen Picasso prints found, and the problem with clouds. - Author: Hyperallergic - Tags: Daily Newsletter, Newsletter “I wrote this book because I was paid a shitload of money to write it,” Mona Chalabi says in her new book *Ten Lives: How What We Have Shapes Who We Are* — or tried to, anyway, before her editor stopped her. The Iraqi-British, Pulitzer-winning artist and illustrator has made a career saying what nobody else can, or will — calling out fellow journalists for their refusal to report on Palestine, for instance. Today, she talks to Associate Editor Laskhmi Rivera Amin about her data-driven, hand-drawn process, as well as how class and inequality shape journalism, art, and our lives. Funny — as an editor, my favorite thing is not stopping my writers. That’s precisely how Lori Waxman’s piece on the return of sexy art in Chicago was born. No, this is not a personal essay about her or her acquaintances’ sexuality (“Maybe after everyone’s dead,” she says). It’s much better — loaded with art historical judgments (has anyone referred to Willem de Kooning’s drawings as “slasher sketches” before? We ought to); discussion of glory holes and sexy architecture; and gems about life (“female middle-age libido sets at either zero or 1,000, on a scale of one to 100”). God, I love my job. *—Lisa Yin Zhang, associate editor* --- [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/11/mona.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/mona-chalabi-paints-a-picture-of-class-inequality/) [ Mona Chalabi Paints a Picture of Class Inequality ](https://hyperallergic.com/mona-chalabi-paints-a-picture-of-class-inequality/) “As an adult and as a journalist, I have stared shamelessly.” That refusal to look away is precisely what data journalist, writer, and artist Mona Chalabi has built her deeply principled career on. Known best for her indelible data visualizations, from the obscenity of Jeff Bezos’s wealth to the Israeli government’s starvation of Palestinians in Gaza and the racial and gender biases in museum collections, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Iraqi-British journalist tackles the subject of wealth and economic inequality in America in her first book, *Ten Lives: How What We Have Shapes Who We Are* (2026). | Lakshmi Rivera Amin [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/mona-chalabi-paints-a-picture-of-class-inequality/) --- SPONSORED [![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/11/1148-MKTG-DuchampHyperAllergicNewsLetter_10.8-3.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/discover-marcel-duchamp-at-the-philadelphia-museum-of-art/) ****Discover Marcel Duchamp at the Philadelphia Museum of Art** See 300+ unique works by Marcel Duchamp, including the permanently installed masterpiece “Étant donnés”, exclusively at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. [Learn more ](https://hyperallergic.com/discover-marcel-duchamp-at-the-philadelphia-museum-of-art/) --- ## News [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/11/MLK.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/only-known-manuscript-of-mlks-i-have-a-dream-could-fetch-10m-at-auction/) - The only handwritten manuscript of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s [“I Have a Dream” speech will be up for auction](https://hyperallergic.com/only-known-manuscript-of-mlks-i-have-a-dream-could-fetch-10m-at-auction/) at Christie’s in January 2027. - [French authorities discover six stolen Pablo Picasso prints](https://hyperallergic.com/six-stolen-picassos-found-under-pile-of-clothes-in-french-home/) under a pile of clothes in a home on the French Riviera. - Ohio State University calls off the school’s review process to consider [removing billionaire benefactor Les Wexner’s name](https://hyperallergic.com/wexner-center-for-the-arts-to-keep-name-despite-founders-epstein-ties/) from campus buildings. --- ## Features [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/11/sexy-art.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/is-sexy-art-back-or-is-it-just-me/) [ Is Sexy Art Back, or Is It Just Me? ](https://hyperallergic.com/is-sexy-art-back-or-is-it-just-me/) From Willem de Kooning’s miserable nudes to Alexandra Barth’s hot and bothered architecture, sex is in the air in Chicago. | Lori Waxman [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/is-sexy-art-back-or-is-it-just-me/) [ Andy Warhol’s Habibi Phase in Kuwait ](https://hyperallergic.com/andy-warhols-habibi-phase-in-kuwait/) Raed Yassin’s exhibition “Warhol of Arabia” reimagines the pop artist’s 1977 visit to the Gulf country and a bygone era in the Middle East. | Greta Rainbow [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/andy-warhols-habibi-phase-in-kuwait/) --- SPONSORED [![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/11/Sanctus--1990---Barbara-Hammer-3.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/medical-imaging-and-art-meet-in-the-exhibition-overexposed/) ****Medical Imaging and Art Meet in the Exhibition “Overexposed”** The concurrent emergence of cinema and X-ray technology radically transformed how we see and understand the human body. [Learn more ](https://hyperallergic.com/medical-imaging-and-art-meet-in-the-exhibition-overexposed/) --- ## From Our Critics [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/11/cloud.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/clouds-were-once-photographys-greatest-challenge/) [ Clouds Were Once Photography’s Greatest Challenge ](https://hyperallergic.com/clouds-were-once-photographys-greatest-challenge/) The Met Museum’s “Chasing Clouds” is a pleasing romp through the technical problem of capturing clouds at photography’s beginning. | Julia Curl [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/clouds-were-once-photographys-greatest-challenge/) --- ## Books [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/11/persimmons.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/the-zen-mona-lisa/) [ The Zen Mona Lisa ](https://hyperallergic.com/the-zen-mona-lisa/) A review of an ancient Chinese ink painting takes an art critic on a journey through his own past. | Will Heinrich [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/the-zen-mona-lisa/) --- ## Hyper Links - Dalit activist and writer Yashica Dutt reports on the wave of progressive South Asian leaders [taking office across the United States](https://newlinesmag.com/argument/the-midterms-mark-a-progressive-turn-for-south-asian-americans/?ref=hyperallergic.com).\[*New Lines Magazine*\] - The feral online discourse about Merritt Tierce’s essay on an affair with an economist is [at least as interesting as the piece itself](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/good-enough-for-a-tuesday-night?ref=hyperallergic.com). \[*New Yorker*\] - Did you know nine out of 10 time capsules go missing? (Or that there’s an [International Time Capsule Society?](https://longreads.com/2026/11/05/time-capsules-ashley-stimpson/?ref=hyperallergic.com)) \[*Longreads*\] - M John Harrison won the 2026 Booker Prize for a novel fittingly titled *The End of Everything*, becoming the [first sci-fi writer to win](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/nov/09/m-john-harrison-the-end-of-everything-wins-2026-booker-prize?ref=hyperallergic.com). \[*Guardian*\] - A handy graphic inspired by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s [alleged affair with a Chinese spy](https://x.com/PixBuilds/status/2119810865100685474/photo/1?ref=hyperallergic.com). \[X\] --- ## Member Comment Is it going to come across like Martha Stewart's Halloween costume? —Denise Sanabria on "[Met Gala’s New Theme Is the Biggest Recession Indicator Yet](https://hyperallergic.com/met-galas-new-theme-is-the-biggest-recession-indicator-yet/)" --- ## From the Archive [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/11/drag.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/glitter-concrete-history-of-drag-in-new-york-city-elyssa-maxx-goodman/) [ The Glittery History of Drag in New York City ](https://hyperallergic.com/glitter-concrete-history-of-drag-in-new-york-city-elyssa-maxx-goodman/) Glitter and Concrete demands we take drag seriously as a cultural art form that responds to, critiques, and is a crucial part of American history. | Zac Thompson [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/glitter-concrete-history-of-drag-in-new-york-city-elyssa-maxx-goodman/)