Hierarchy of Needs, rendered in pencil on paper in 2023, exemplifies Karl Haendel's sustained inquiry into the charged relationship between image, text, and cultural memory. Working at a scale that invites close, intimate looking, Haendel deploys his signature graphite draftsmanship to distill complex social and psychological frameworks into compositions that feel simultaneously familiar and quietly unsettling. The work's title, drawn from Abraham Maslow's well-known motivational theory, suggests a layered reading, one in which the hierarchies governing human desire and fulfillment are submitted to the same scrutiny Haendel brings to found imagery, political iconography, and the visual vernacular of everyday American life. Haendel studied at Brown University, the University of California Los Angeles, the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, a trajectory that positioned him at the intersection of rigorous conceptual discourse and committed material practice. His drawings have been presented at the Whitney Biennial, the Biennale de Lyon, and Prospect, among other major survey exhibitions, and his work enters this piece's provenance already held by institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Hammer Museum. Critical recognition across publications such as Artforum, Frieze, and The New Yorker has further established his standing as one of the most thoughtful voices working in drawing today. Signed by the artist and offered in connection with the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions benefit auction, this work represents a compelling opportunity to acquire a substantive example from a mature and widely collected practice. Courtesy of Vielmetter Los Angeles, it ships from Los Angeles, with all associated costs the responsibility of the acquiring collector.