David LaChapelle is a critically acclaimed photographer, best known for his hyper-profound social messages filtered through a surrealist lens of highly contrasted and vivid color schemes. LaChapelle is one of few photographers to successfully straddle the divide between the contemporary art world and celebrity filled editorial campaigns.
LaChapelle comes from a generation of artists taken under the wing of Andy Warhol in the 1980’s, whose influence is clearly reflected in LaChapelle’s photographs. His subjects generally include Hollywood sex symbols and post-apocalyptic consumer societies with obvious reference to religious iconography and art history.
Covering LaChapelle's body of work
The MAC is pleased to present a condensed compilation of David LaChapelle’s life’s work thus far. His first series on display, Good News for Modern Man, is a selection of black and white photographs reminiscent of Italian Renaissance and Pre-Raphaelites. Negative Currency follows as large colorful magnifications of international currency. The next selection, Earth Laughs in Flowers, is a take on Flemish still life made modern with flower bouquets adorned with dated everyday household items. The selections from Still Life contain found wax replicas of celebrities broken down into busts, limbs and digits, strategically placed within a cardboard box backdrop. Recollections in America contains 1970’s snapshots of family gatherings reappropriated into a collaged dystopian retrogrades. Land Scapes, LaChapelle’s most recent work from this exhibition, illustrates oil refinery plants lit up with eerie iridescent colors that highlight the triumph of the industrial revolution.
Sometimes satirical and at other times nostalgic, David LaChapelle’s work exhibits a critique of twenty-first century pop culture with loving imagery. The artist uses his photographic medium as a mirror held up to public, displaying the world we live in where consumerism rules and idolism fuels. This exhibition is not to be missed.
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