In 2017, José Lerma staged his exhibition Nunquam Prandium Liberum at Kavi Gupta gallery in Chicago. The exhibition was named after a latin translation of the phrase, “There is no such thing as a free lunch,” economist Milton Friedman’s favorite adage and a foundational axiom for 20th century libertarian theory. It implies the impossibility of getting something for nothing, a concept we are often confronted with when forced by circumstance to permit abuses of power. In this portrait of Friedman, he seems to be laying on the floor, dismayed, his eyes seemingly transformed into a magic 8-ball.